


The Couple that Slays Together (Stays Together)

by Todteufelritter



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Angst, Anxious Catra, But Make them Gay, Canon Compliant, Catra Goes to Therapy (She-Ra), Conan Shit, Do I even need these tags this shit is canon, Dragons, Drinking, Drunk Adora (She-Ra), Epic Metal, F/F, F/M, Gay-er, Glimmer (She-Ra) Swears, Heavy Metal Album Covers, Jock Adora (She-Ra), Lesbian Adora (She-Ra), Lesbian Catra (She-Ra), Let Catra (She-Ra) Say Fuck, Let Glimmer (She-Ra) Say Fuck, POV Adora (She-Ra), POV Catra (She-Ra), Post-Canon, She Ra - Freeform, Space Opera, Space Pirates, Star Wars Cantina Vibes, USPM, Weird Aliens, barbarians - Freeform, bromance and romance, okay, sword and sorcery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-15 09:15:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 37,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29061948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Todteufelritter/pseuds/Todteufelritter
Summary: Adora and Catra explore strange new worlds, meet weird new aliens and go on badass adventures a year after the show ends. Meanwhile, they are both still figuring out who they are and how to ask for what they want. Because they may be badass space diplomat/warrior/adventurers, but they are also 22.I promise there will be a space dragon.Starts space opera and then shifts into being a gay AF Conan homage. Basically the perfect fic if you are part of the converging sliver in the Venn Diagram of fandoms for She Ra and 80's US Power Metal.Note: this fic is my version of teen and up, so a lot of swearing, sex and violence are both mentioned but not explicitly described, and characters get drunk or high.
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra), Entrapta/Hordak (She-Ra)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 47





	1. Dive Bars and Death Wishes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soundtrack - Hawkwind - Space Ritual

Another fight, another night, another victory party for She-Ra, champion of the universe, or whatever the fuck they were calling her now. Adora was across the room, 7+ feet tall, broad shouldered and stunning, surrounded by a motley and many-hued crew of aliens slapping her on the back with their wings and tentacles and pincers and pseudopods. From the look of it Adora had a complimentary drink in each hand and was getting two more shoved into her face. At least she wasn’t doing tricks with her sword. And at least no one around her was drawing a knife.

For her part, Catra was slumped by the wall, drinking alone, nursing a few minor bruises and scrapes, flexing her aching hands, checking her claws to make sure she’d gotten the blood off, and gingerly touching her bloody knuckles as they started to scab. There had been more fighting in the past year than Catra had bargained for - pirates, warlords, local juntas - all the thugs that had lived on the fringes of Prime’s Empire, struggling to survive, preying on the weak and hoping they wouldn’t be the next to fall when Big Brother stretched his hand out across the stars again. Catra understood these people, though it still surprised them how many tried to fight She-Ra. Or hell, how many of them tried to fight her, or Sparkles. She wasn't sure if knocking the shit out of people who reminded her of herself was redemption, but fuck it, she was good at it, and she was with Adora. Then there were Horde Prime's dead enders, clones who were still trying to follow their last command, and various cultists and creeps who missed the old days. Fighting them was significantly more disturbing. But whoever they were up against, it was usually over pretty quickly. Hence all the victory parties. Still, it didn’t make the fights easier. Especially watching Adora dive into the middle of them - Catra's eyes snapped back to the crowd around Adora. Still no weapons out. Adora was still safe. Catra looked down and saw her claws gouging her glass. She shook her head. Maybe she just needed more to drink.

At least this party wasn’t in some fancy, weird alien ballroom. At least this wasn’t one of those balls where all the dances required tentacles or the ability to become incorporeal to complete. At least this was in a dive bar. If there’s one thing Catra had learned in the past year, it’s that the universe had an enormous number of dive bars. And for some damn reason Adora loved them all. It was probably the booze. Adora had a staggering thirst for strange forms of strong drink, and Catra was surprised she hadn’t poisoned herself yet, especially after Catra gave up on trying to test all of Adora’s drinks for her. For her part, Catra didn’t mind the dives. She liked the scumfuck clientele - the smugglers, pirates, loan-sharks, spies and bounty hunters. These bars reminded her of the Crimson Wastes. Between Catra’s savvy and the sheer terror that Adora inspired in bullies and villains of all kinds, she and Adora made out pretty well in places like this, even when the bar wasn’t throwing Adora a party for beating up some locally infamous and little-loved pirate king.

Honestly though, the best part of these cantinas was how viscerally uncomfortable Sparkles was being in them. Maybe it was Catra’s revenge for Glimmer dragging them to so many diplomatic galas with arcane etiquette and fancy balls with the weird dances and luncheons where the main course was some kind of giant paramecium. Maybe Catra just liked seeing her friend (yes, her friend) squirm a little. Most likely, Glimmer was just hilarious in sketchy bars. Right now she was overcompensating for her discomfort by getting way too drunk, somewhat belligerent, and was on the verge of glitter-punching what looked like a self-aware sea anemone. Just then Glimmer's copious stream of obscenities carried over the murmur of the crowd and the distorted, raucous music. Catra stifled a chuckle - she hoped it didn’t come to blows, that sea-anemone didn’t stand a chance, and probably hadn’t done anything wrong. Nothing so bad that it deserved to get a rainbow beat down from Sparkles. After all, Glimmer had nearly killed her often enough that Catra knew just how scary her Most Shimmery Pastel Majesty could be. Plus, she’d just seen the woman teleport onto a pirate ship and beat the living shit out of the entire bridge crew. Anyway Catra wasn’t in the mood for one of Glimmer’s signature bar fights tonight. She resolved to run over and break things up if it got out of hand, but for now she was going to amuse herself watching. Eh, Bow would probably break it up anyway, hopefully not so soon that he spoiled her fun.

But where was Arrow Boy? Catra scanned the room, struggling to pass over her girlfriend flexing her muscles and laughing at herself, and failing when Adora caught her gaze and winked. Damnit, woman. I was trying to think. About what? Definitely not what those arms would feel like around her, or what those hands would feel like pinning her down. Focus, Catra. You were looking for...Bow. And you’re not that drunk, not drunk enough to be this distracted. Catra broke Adora’s stare, for now. I’ll get you for this, my love, she thought, as she returned her eyes to the crowd, checking again for weapons.

“What’cha doin’, Catra?” Catra finished her sweep of the room, turning her head over her left shoulder. Well she’d found Bow.

“Oh you know me. Just people watching. Or weird alien watching. Whatever.”

“Are you alright?”

“Why wouldn’t I be alright?”

“Well for one thing, your girlfriend's getting drunk and you’re not next to her, laughing at her.”

“I can see Adora from here, and it’s plenty amusing. And speaking of drunk girlfriends…” Catra waved at Glimmer, who was apparently now best friends with the sentient sea anemone. Because of course she was.

Bow chuckled. “Don’t change the subject.”

“So a woman can’t drink alone?”

“No, you’re welcome to. But I just wanted to check in.”

“I’m fine.”

“That’s good. You had me worried back there. And you are scanning the room like you are on a recon mission”

“Me? What? I was fine. Just a few scratches.”

“You nearly took a disintegrator beam to the chest, Catra. In a skirmish with some local starship-jackers.”

“Yeah well I didn’t.” Catra downed the rest of her drink. Why did every species have some booze that tasted like black liquorice? And why did she drink it anyway when she hated the taste so much?

“You were just...you were fighting pretty recklessly. I was worried about you.”

“Me, reckless? You should talk to Adora, she’s always charging in like nothing can hurt her…”

“Catra, she’s a warrior demigoddess with the power of a planet in her chest. She can take a hit. You can’t. Any more than I can.”

“Eh, I’ve got Melog.”

“And you decloak and draw everyone's fire. What good is having Melog with you then? Sometimes it’s like you’re trying to get yourself killed.” Bow gave her a searching look. Shit. Catra sighed.

“Bow, I’m not trying to get killed. Believe me, I’ve never had more to live for. I’ve never had more to lose.” She looked up at Adora, like a sap, then caught herself and tried to force a laugh. “I’m over all that self destructive shit, Bow. I want to live. I mean if I wasn't around who would make fun of Adora?"

“Well that’s good. But you’re still worrying me. Something’s going on.”

Catra glared at Bow. “Of course something’s going on!” she hissed. “The woman I love is the savior of the universe and she’s skipping between the stars swinging her sword and nearly getting killed, and it’s stressing me out, okay!?” Catra breathed. She unclenched her fist, which had grabbed bow’s collar. Catra recoiled.

“Sorry!”

“Catra, it’s fine. But you need to take care of yourself. You think it’s easy for me to see Glimmer dink and duck with sudden death?"

"I don't know, is it?"

"Of course not! But I trust her and I respect her, and I don't want her to get hurt if I die doing something stupid. Try to think about how Adora would feel if you got hurt. You’re smart, you and Adora are good at planning, you both are so on the ball with every briefing. And then the shooting starts and you’re rushing in trying to protect a woman who can take a lot more damage than you can. So please. Just...be careful out there"

"Alright, I'll try, if it’ll get you off my back.”

“Well that’s a start. But you still haven’t told me why you’re scanning this room like you’re checking your back in the middle of battle.”

“This is a pretty sketchy bar, Bow. Bad things can happen.”

“You are so stressed you scratched your glass, Catra.”

“Damnit, Bow. I’m really used to my friends being dense as bricks. How did you get so good with this feelings shit anyway?"

"You...have met Glimmer and Adora, right?"

Catra snorted. "I have. Yeah I guess you need to be all touchy feely when those two express their emotions by screaming or hitting things." Just then, as if on cue, Catra heard Gimmer scream "Motherfucker!" from across the room. At least it wasn't followed by the sound of a gelatinous body hitting the floor. Meanwhile, Adora was lifting the biggest squid-person in the room over her head one handed and giving her cockiest grin. It was hilarious, and stupid, and actually kind of hot.

"Uh, Catra, were you finished?" 

Catra turned back to Bow and willed herself not to glance back to Adora. "Oh, yeah. Sorry. Just checking out... ah, checking in on my girlfriend."

"Right...but anyway, yeah one of us needs to be the sensitive one."

Catra snorted again. "Man I guess it is even worse with me here."

Bow chuckled. "You make jokes about everything and pretend you don't care. At least it's a change of pace."

"From the anger and casual violence and like, pointless stoicism?"

"Something like that."

Catra chuckled. Arrow Boy was alright. Even if he was annoying. Catra glanced at Bow and was about to ask something sly about Glimmer when she felt a larger, strong, and not very gentle hand on her shoulder

“Hey Catra…” Adora slurred beside her. Catra jumped and wheeled around. How the hell did a drunk 7 and more foot tall Amazon sneak up on her? The question was quickly driven from her mind as Adora looked down on her. Lovingly, maybe lecherously and certainly drunkenly.

“You look like such an idiot.”

“Oh do I. Well that’s. It’s an opinion. And I’m fair. So I’m going to note your opinion. Because She Ra, Champion of the cosmos, listens to all. Even to mean girlfriends.”

This was six drinks Adora. She had reached the point of slurring, but was at least semi-coherent. Normally, Catra would find this hilarious, but now she was mostly thinking of how defenceless Adora was.

Adora cocked her head and gave Catra her best smile, pretty crooked six drinks in. “So, you wanna have sex?”

“Adora! We’re in public!”

“I didn’t mean here, Catra, I’m not...I’m not stupid. We can go back to...the ship!”

“Adora, you still don’t just.. Say that so loud.”

“Awww you’re blushing. You’re so modest, Catra. Fine. I’ll be quiet.” Adora said, dropping her voice into what was still a very loud whisper.

“Adora, you’re pretty drunk, I wouldn’t want to, you know, take advantage of you.”

“Aw, you’re so noble, too. It’s hot.”

“No one has ever called me that.”

“Fine, I guess I am... kinda drunk. Tongue’s not working so good. That’s not great. I can fix it.” Adora held out her hand, and the air shimmered and solidified into a sword.

“Uh, Adora, please don’t do sword tricks. That didn’t work so well last time.”

“I’m not doing sword tricks. But those are pretty fun. Maybe I should do sword tricks... What was I doing? Oh yeah!” Adora breathed deep and held her sword aloft, and she was bathed in many-colored light. Her skin glowed, her hair shone, her eyes sparkled. She looked divine, and Catra couldn’t help but stare. The glow faded and Adora turned to her with that smug grin on her face, much less crooked this time.

“This thing is so useful.” Adora said, still grinning at her sword as she flicked her wrist and it returned to the aether or wherever it lived.

“Did you just use your sparkle powers to sober up? You are such an idiot.”

“I think I used my sparkle powers so I’d be sober enough for my girlfriend tonight. So aren’t you going to thank me?”

“How are you such a cocky meathead?” Catra said, smiling through it all. Damnit, Adora. Damnit Catra more like it, she was making this way too easy for Adora.

Adora chuckled. “Oh you love it. Damn. I’m getting a crick in my neck.” Adora grabbed Catra’s collar and lifted her with one arm, shoving her into the wall and fixing her with that fierce blue gaze. “That’s better. Isn’t it Catra?”

Catra swallowed hard. "Hey Adora," she choked out as she felt a wave of heat flush over her.

Catra woke up with a start. Heart racing, claws out, every instinct was screaming that something terrible was about to happen. That something terrible had happened. They’d hit Adora, she hadn’t been breathing. No, that wasn’t right. She was in bed. She wasn’t on a battlefield. She was in Adora’s cabin. The light of 3 alien moons poured in through the porthole. The air smelled of Adora, and sex, and not much like blood and not at all like burned flesh. She was naked. She was almost afraid to check, but she did - Adora was beside her. Was she asleep? Was she alive? Catra was about to jump over and shake her when a half-snore confirmed that Adora was very much alive. Catra breathed out. It was a dream. Another one, yet one more dead Adora dream, like all the rest. She guessed they were better than the ‘Adora realizes that I’m a monster and leaves me’ dreams, and also better than the ‘Adora kills me and I deserve it’ dreams. Those had been fun to talk about with Perfuma. And at least she didn’t dream as much about being held down by Prime’s clones and having a tube shoved down her throat and her body being tugged around like a puppet while thoughts that weren't her own took over her mind. 

It was just a dream. Adora was alive. Adora was next to her, looking soft and beautiful and peaceful, except for the smug smile still on her face. How the hell did her girlfriend look cocky even when she was asleep? Catra tried to muster loving annoyance at Adora, as if it could dissipate the fear.

Catra lay back down and took stock of herself. Some mornings she woke up with Adora’s arms around her and hair in her mouth and Adora’s murmurs in her ear. Some mornings, like this one, Catra woke up with skin and just a little blood under her claws and the sheets shredded, the walls scratched, and her body covered in a surprising number of scratches and bite marks (wasn’t she the one with the claws and fangs?). Normally she liked both kinds of mornings, and she wasn’t about to complain about last night (far from it) but it was hard to bask in ecstasy when the first thing she thought about when she woke was her girlfriend’s dead body. Catra looked over at Adora. She was completely fine, without even a loving scratch on her, only the old scars on her back showing ghostly white in the moonlight. Catra wanted to roll over and embrace her, hold her, tell her that she loved her and feel her heartbeat, remind herself that Adora was alive. Adora was hers, somehow. But Catra held back. She got up out of bed, as light as she could, and went over to the tiny head attached to the Captain’s Cabin of the ship (Catra still didn’t like calling it Darla).

She turned on the sink and splashed cold water on her face, shocking herself awake the rest of the way. Her eyes stared back at her in the mirror, yellow and blue. What was wrong with her? All she needed to do was just be happy. But Perfuma told her that kicking herself until she was wasn’t going to work. She was pretty sure Bow would agree. Things are better, she reminded herself. Life is better. You don’t want to die anymore, which is nice. You don’t feel dead already. You only hate yourself about one fourth of the time. And even your fears are better; you’re not convinced Adora’s going to wise up and leave you in the middle of the night anymore. Now you’re just terrified of her dying. And you can listen to these feelings and even talk about them, which helps, supposedly. So, you know, progress.

Ugh, it was these missions. It was all the fighting, and the strange new worlds. Catra would be lying if she said she didn't often love it but mornings like this she wanted to be home on Etheria with Adora more than anything. Adora, just for her. Adora, safe.

Maybe their next mission would be nice and boring. It was supposed to be a diplomatic summit with some kind of space-nomads. Catra tried to soothe herself with that thought as she quietly washed her face, cleaned her claws, tucked her shoulder-length hair behind her ears and dressed. She slunk out of the cabin and onto the bridge. There wasn't much to do, it was 0500, and Glimmer and Adora would be sleeping it off. Catra just curled up in Adora's chair. It smelled refreshingly of her, but here Catra could watch the moons dance with each other without waking Adora. She liked watching them. Seeing three together reminded her of home, and a time when the moons were the only thing in the night sky and the only person in the world who would look at them with her was Adora.. And now...Catra turned around. They had all of that to look at too. Stars in clusters, superclusters, galaxies. It was all pretty incredible. Catra looked back from the windscreen on one side to the other, thinking in turns of Etheria and of the countless worlds beyond it. She was so homesick and yet she didn't want this to end. Sometimes she liked this shit far more than she would ever admit, especially to Glimmer.

Catra heard soft feet padding behind her. 

"Well there you are," she said with a smile.

"Are you feeling better?" Melog asked. 

"Better than what?"

"I can feel your emotions, Catra. You startled me with your dream."

"Sorry, buddy. I guess I feel a little better. Just a dream."

"They are strange things. I tried having one once. It was odd."

"You don't dream?"

"I don't sleep."

"Right. Of course. Just...come over here?"

Melog did that little growl-purr of his and rubbed themself against Catra's outstretched hand.

"I'll be fine. I just think l need for things to be boring for a little while."


	2. A Diplomatic Incident

Adora rolled over sleepily, and reached out over an empty bed. That’s when she started awake. Damnit, Catra, why can’t you stay in bed? Adora sighed. She had been looking forward to slowly waking up with her girlfriend in her arms, even when she was asleep. Had she woken Catra up thrashing around again, ‘sleep fighting’? She hoped not. If she couldn’t sleep peacefully after a decent fight, a good party and a wild time with her girlfriend, when could she relax? She didn’t feel stressed. But Catra and Bow both said she was bad at telling. She shrugged to herself, staggered into the head, washed, dressed in a fresh thermal shirt and clean red jacket and tied back her hair. Not for the first time, she wondered if she should just transform into She Ra and save herself the trouble. The hair was always better. But ducking through the hatches was awful.

Adora walked onto the bridge and found Catra lounging in her chair, tail wrapped around herself, looking at the stars.

Adora smiled, but she wasn’t going to let her girlfriend off that easy. “I think that’s my seat.”

“I didn’t see you in it, Princess. Captain. Ma’am.” Catra gave the world’s most insolent, casual salute. Adora walked over, picked Catra up, and sat, setting Catra back in her lap.

“There, now we can both sit here.”

“I was just keeping it warm for you.”

“I’d rather you keep me warm in bed. I hope I didn’t wake you up by…”

“Punching and kicking me out of bed while you slept? Pft, no. You were fine. I just...woke up early.”

Catra trailed off and looked away. Melog’s mane glowed a darker blue. Adora remembered how Catra been acting the night before, at least, she remembered the parts from before she was three sheets to the wind. Adora almost opened her mouth to ask her girlfriend what was wrong, but it was Catra. She would tell her in her own time, or not at all. Adora just scratched Catra behind her ears and was rewarded with a half-hearted bat of one hand and a weak ‘stop it’ and then a purr.

They sat there, together, mostly in silence, gazing at the stars for a long time. Adora smiled to herself.

"Last night was a lot of fun," Adora said.

"Well you sure seemed to enjoy yourself."

"Hah, so did you. I seem to recall you telling I was, what were the words? 'Amazing.'"

"Yeah and then you grinned like an idiot and said 'I guess I am pretty amazing.'" Catra said with a dopey smile, in her best and most cocksure Adora-Voice.

"Hey I can't help it if it's true. And you love it."

"Better than that time you pumped both fists in the air and said you were the greatest lover in the galaxy."

"Well I mean…"

"Pfft, whenever I don't give you shit you let it go to your head. Face it, I am the only thing keeping you humble, Adora."

Adora laughed, and smiled. But she couldn't help see Catra's smile fade slowly and see her look away, back to the stars. 

They sat there until Adora’s stomach growled and forced her to the galley. 7 Dehydrated eggs, two of those alien donuts that were shaped like a ∞, and 9 slices of bacon from a kind of squid-pig from an ocean planet half a galaxy away, washed down with a smoothie of protein slaw and yogurt from a 7 legged yak that lived 10,000 light years away. Catra ate smoked salmon out of the package and brewed up coffee for them both. She wiped the fish-grease off her hands before reaching over to grasp Adora’s. For her part Adora stopped stuffing her face just long enough to look across at Catra and smile.Then she returned to her eggs. Her girlfriend would still be there in two minutes, but her breakfast would not. Not if she had anything to do with it, anyway.

Adora was just polishing off the last of the bacon and scraping her plate when Bow walked in. 

“You’re up early, Arrows. If you wanted to get some food before Adora devoured everything I think you’re too late, though.” Catra said.

“Guys...you need to see this.”

“Bow, it’s a tracker pad. You’re always carrying one, like your arrows but less cool. I mean...lamer. Like your arrows but lamer.”

Adora chuckled. “What is it, Catra, too early for proper put-downs? That was almost nice.”

“I’ll be wittier with coffee. Here’s yours, not that it’ll do much good.” Catra nodded and smiled to herself. “See, already back on my game.”

“Guys can you stop the bicker-banter for a second. This is important.”

Adora finally looked up, took the coffee from Catra and walked over to peer over Bow’s shoulder. 

Bow started talking before she even arrived. “Last night we got the star charts of the Cephalapodian nomads. They were sharing them before our summit.”

“So we can help them pick a new homeworld. Right. Sparkles and I already have a list anyway.”

“Sure, I was already cross-referencing your list and comparing their database with…”

Adora sighed inwardly. This was more diplomatic business, the kind Bow and Glimmer and Catra settled so well on their own. All she needed to do at this summit was show up and just...be She Ra. Get gawked at, be inspiring, show them the hands that had slain Horde Prime, flash her sword around. The best she could hope for is that they’d ask her for a magic demonstration and some feats of strength and not go on and on about how she was a symbol of hope to the universe or expect a speech about change and a new age of magic to come. Adora drank from her coffee and tried to focus. Bow was excited about something.

“...and after I did that comparison, I noticed this report. ‘Planet appeared during a brief ejection of gas from Luminous Blue Variable Star Ω563. Exploration party sent Galactic Month 342.12, contact maintained until Galactic Month 342.17. Planet inhabited, pre spaceflight technology. No signs of horde incursion…”

“If it’s inhabited why do we care? The Cephalapodians need a new homeworld for She-Ra to magic up, and I’m not evicting some poor saps to do it.”

“Can I finish? This isn’t about the Celphalopodians.”

“Fine.”

“‘Inhabitants furred, six limbed, three sexed, reproduce by...etc etc.’ Oh here it is. ‘Inhabitants display ability to spontaneously generate lights from their hands, and can cause spontaneous plant growth. They display other connections to the planet and can affect it in ways which our current understanding of physics cannot explain.’ What does that sound like?” Bow asked, looking up excitedly.

“Confused explorers?”

Adora shook her head. “Magic. They have magic. We found another planet that kept magic.”

“Exactly. This is huge. Maybe Etheria isn’t the only place. Think of all the things we could learn, what it means for our mission…”

“Admit it, Bow, you wish Entrapta were here right now to start squeeing about this.”

“It would be nice to have someone who was properly enthusiastic, yes, Catra.”

Adora put a hand on Bow’s shoulder. “Well I think this is amazing. Let’s go!”

Bow stared back at her. “What you mean now? We have a summit…”

Adora sighed. Catra was looking down at the floor, thinking.

She looked up and Bow, and spoke, rapid fire. “Wait, that report said contact maintained until Galactic Month 342.17. What do they mean ‘contact maintained until’?”

Bow looked through the report again. “I’m not sure. It’s strange, normally there’s a return date. Wait.” Bow looked up from his data pad. “Contact with the explorers was lost.”

“So there’s a magic planet, and it eats explorers. That sounds great.”

"Wait, Bow, what's the current galactic month by the Cephalopodian calendar?"

"It's…243.9.”

"They haven't been missing for long. We could offer to find them." Adora saw Catra scowl immediately. "It's just an idea."

"Or we could not get killed rescuing some explorers we don't know from a cursed planet. If we're brainstorming, that's my crazy idea."

"Well we should at least ask them about it."

“Oooof, fine. I’ll brief Sparkles when she isn’t hungover. Well, when she’s less hungover. How is Glimmer, anyway, Bow?”

“I’m really hoping she’s able to keep breakfast down.”

“Bacon always helped me.”

“Adora, you just She-Ra heal all your hangovers. I don't think you're an expert.”

“Well if we have a summit Adora should probably heal Glimmer too. Can you get her in here? We need to talk to her,” Catra said.

Bow paused a moment then nodded. Catra and Adora were alone with their coffee. Adora sighed inwardly. Another exciting chance to explore the universe was going to become another agenda item that Catra and Glimmer would expertly push to the bottom of the meeting. Adora looked over at Catra. Judging by her ‘plotting’ face she was already planning on how to do just that.

Adora took her coffee and went back to her cabin. She unrolled a few star charts she’d made, then rifled through maps of some planet’s she’d enjoyed. There was the shattered moon of Empryx, a maze of chasms and rock spires left over from an impact that had nearly destroyed it. There was the dead city-world of Askuru, once the capital of a race older than the First Ones, now an empty and lifeless city that spanned a planet. Okay, she hadn’t -liked- Askuru, far from it. But it had been exciting to be the first living being to set foot on it in over a thousand years. Even if she was left wondering if it was her people who had destroyed it.

Well, maybe this summit wouldn’t be too bad. Maybe they could get out and explore after all. Adora looked through her notes and sketches and added in a few new stars from the last few weeks.

The rest of the morning Adora spent in the hold working out, in between healing Glimmer's catastrophic hangover and etiquette practice. The Cephalopodians were sexually fluid and their language had eight different genders of pronouns to reflect where they were in their reproductive cycle, their personal identity, or both, and they were big on family lineages. 

But 1300 came soon enough, and the Cephalopodian caravan fleet dropped out of warp all around them. Huge spaceships surrounded them, looking like cities on disks - towers and domes piled on top of each other. Adora transformed and Darla flew into the center of the largest ship. Alright, even if she dreaded all the eyes on She Ra, this was kind of incredible.

As Darla flew on autopilot into the vast city-ship they flew between the spires and over the domes. They could see thousands of lights in apartments and in promenades facing out into space and under the domes they saw parks, plazas, gardens, and amphitheatres with teeming masses of people in all of them. Even separated from it by the vacuum of space, they could feel the city-ship pulse with life. It was nearly as large as Prime's flagship, but Adora couldn't think of anything more different than the deathlike sterility of The Velvet Glove. Murals and mosaics adorned nearly every flat wall of every building, and statues jutted out from the towers, reaching their tentacles as though they were going to embrace the stars themselves. Adora looked over at her companions. They were all wide-eyed, even Catra.

"Well I guess the Cephalopodians are doing alright for themselves, even without a homeworld," Catra said nonchalantly, but her eyes told a different story.

"This is amazing!" Bow said, clutching Glimmer's shoulders. "It's a city in space!"

"Entrapta's going to be so sorry she missed out on this."

"Pffft, if she wanted to see cool shit she shouldn't have gone on that honeymoon with Hordak. I dunno what parts of the galaxy he wants to visit but I bet they're pretty lame." 

"I don't think their trip is a honeymoon, exactly..."

"Entrapta, Hordak, some clones and like 7 robots? That is definitely Entrapta's idea of a honeymoon." Catra said with a sideways grin. Adora and Glimmer both suppressed a chuckle. "And I mean, good for her. A girl's got needs." Bow turned red and Glimmer and Adora lost it.

Adora caught Catra with a sideways glance. Normally she would have said something about how Catra's needs seemed simple enough, but they were about to meet an alien delegation and now wasn't the time to grab her ass. Or maybe it was the perfect time? As Adora's hand hovered, Catra batted it away with her tail and mouthed something about 'business'. Adora pouted.

Darla flew into the central building, a broad, tall tower with curving walls and a dome on the top. Force-fields closed behind them, and the air hissed in.

"Now remember, the Cephalopodians are friendly but formal. They may seem a little stand-off-ish. Just remember your forms of address and listen to everyone's lineage from all four of their parents. But they don't believe in hierarchy so give them all equal attention..."

Catra stepped forward and put her hand on Glimmer's shoulder. She smiled. "Sparkles. It's fine. We've got this. You've got this." She turned to Adora. "Alright, Champion of the Cosmos, you ready to do your Savior of the Universe thing?" 

Adora sighed. She was ready enough, so she smiled and waved them onwards while she transformed into She Ra. Adora held out her hand and concentrated on her sense of purpose, her mission to restore magic to the cosmos. The light shimmered in front of her palm, and she could feel the strange warmth in her eyes growing, but nothing came of it. Adora grunted and tried again. The others hadn’t noticed, they were walking out now. Adora finally pictured all of them in front of her, next to her, especially Catra, and gestured again. Her sword solidified in front of her and she felt herself grow and glow. She breathed out. The others walked out of Darla in reverse order of precedence. The announcement for each of them sounded in Adora's communicator as she waited in the ship, just out of view. Bow was first, 'Esquire Bow of the Court of Bright Moon, Son of George and Lance, artificer of the third order.' Catra, who insisted on no title, was still introduced as 'Catra of Etheria, esquire of Bright Moon, lady protectrix of Erlandia, vanquisher of the Eyril Armada, consort of She-Ra.' At the mention of She-Ra, there was a pause, and then a cheer. Adora couldn't see her girlfriend's face, but she'd seen Catra blush whenever some official mentioned the 'consort' part (an honorific Adora insisted upon). Adora smiled to herself - that blush made even the stuffiest reception just a bit better. The announcements continued. 'Queen Glimmer of Bright Moon, the first of her name, daughter of Angella and Micah, Ambassador of Etheria, peacebringer, warbreaker, liberator of the Gliopholus Supercluster and mistress of sorcery.' The Cepahlopodians really did love titles. And for a people that didn't believe in kings, or queens, or rulers, or laws, they sure seemed to like monarchs and all their pomp.

Alright, showtime. Adora summoned her sword and set it on her shoulder, balancing it with well-practiced and hard-earned care to keep from cutting herself. She turned the corner and began to walk down the ramp.

The crowd was still and silent , and very, very large as she walked toward them. Each Cepahlopodian had four eyes with rectangular pupils and all of them were fixed on her as she walked out and was announced. "Adora of Etheria, She-Ra, vanquisher of Horde Prime, liberator of the galaxy, savior of the universe, toppler of tyrants, healer of worlds, morning star of the new age, bearer of magic and keeper of the Sword of Protection." Adora heard all these words, and couldn't help but imagine they were talking about someone else, some other savior of the universe. She nearly left her body, and watched herself walk toward the silent, still crowd. She raised her sword in the air, and it shone with many-colored light, bathing the entire square in a shimmering prismatic glow. Just like she'd done seven dozen times before.

Then the entire square erupted in cheers, and surged toward her. Whatever their love of formality, they had lost it - dozens of Cephalopodians surrounded her with over a hundred tentacles nervously reaching up toward her, as though to make sure she was real. It would have been terrifying if the cuttlefish-like aliens weren't so damn cute. Nonetheless, it was still entirely too much. Every Cephalopodian was speaking rapidly out of both of their mouths, so fast the translator couldn't catch it all. 

"The She Ra!"

"The sword!"

"She's so tall!"

"She's so beautiful!"

"We're saved!"

But mostly the voices were lost in a twittering, keening jabber of squeaks and whistles as the translator struggled to keep up. 

And then, in the back, a few more skeptical voices that would have made Adora smile if she hadn't been so overwhelmed. "I thought she would be taller." "Pretty impressive doing all that with only two arms." "And two eyes!"

The maelstrom of very friendly tentacles and cheerful, excited voices and intent but kind eyes only abated when there was a series of whistles, recalling each Cephalopodian to their proper position in the half-circle around the ambassadors. Slowly, reluctantly, they left Adora to take her place by Catra's side.

"Looks like you've got fangirls, Adora." Catra said with a chuckle.

Things calmed down and Glimmer and Catra took charge. The Cephalopodians announced themselves, each syndicate introducing their representative by chanting in unison, and the representative then reciting their own lineage and accomplishments. Fortunately, their genders were apparently color coded based on their irises, so the forms of address were easier than Glimmer and Catra had feared, and they cheerfully and graciously accepted every introduction with the proper reply. 

Then they were led into the formal reception room, and Glimmer and Catra took over completely, playing their well-practiced roles with Bow's help. Glimmer was the face of the group, all curtseys and charm. Bow was the heart - reading the room, chatting people up informally at every break, trying to figure out what they wanted and how they felt. Catra was the wit - raising an eyebrow here, tapping a claw on the table there, deftly maneuvering grandees and plenipotentiaries and magnates around the inconvenient fact that once magic was restored to their world, they wouldn't have nearly as much power over everyone else as they were used to having. Well, that last part was less necessary with the Cephalopodians, who seemed to be the galaxy's most formal and courteous anarchists.

Adora listened intently to everything they had to say about themselves - the loss of the homeworld to Horde Prime 300 years ago, their flight to the stars, their rebuilding of a civilization always on the run, their life warping from star to star. But the Cephalopodians didn't want to talk about themselves. They seemed determined to ask Glimmer and Catra and Adora to tell the same story that they had recited 300 times before. Adora, fighting back on Etheria. She Ra, defying Horde Prime to his face. She Ra, Glimmer, Bow and Catra, solving the mystery of Krytis and the hidden weakness of Horde Prime. She Ra, saving the universe, slaying Horde Prime, healing Etheria. It was her story, but the more she heard it, the more it seemed like something that had happened to someone else. For one thing, Catra insisted on leaving out anything 'too personal,' which meant leaving out Adora's favorite parts, the parts with Catra in her arms and pressed against her lips, the parts where they’d risked their lives for each other, stood by each other and saved each other. So it was all incomplete, and running from start to finish it was a grand struggle for galactic freedom that she didn't recognize, led by a woman she didn't know. Through the whole story Adora kept on her best She-Ra face - slight smile, determined stare, set brow. 

The negotiations themselves were easy enough. The Cephalopodians had apparently decided most points among themselves, so they could clearly articulate what they wanted, and were eager to defer to Glimmer and Catra's suggestions on everything else. Before they broke for hors d'ouvres several hours later, Glimmer, Catra and the Cephalopodians had narrowed down the choice of homeworlds to three planets.

When they broke for the meal, Adora at least knew what to do - she went over to the table and began piling her plate with heavy snacks. Entrapta would love this meal of exclusively tiny food, she thought, as she proceeded to shovel canapes and eggs clusters and unidentifiable meats wrapped in magenta leaves into her mouth. It was then that her fangirls found her again, when She Ra had a mouth and two hands full of food.

"It's the She Ra!" There was something about the definite article in front of her title that made it seem even more like something that belonged to someone else. Adora nearly looked over her shoulder to look for this She Ra woman who had saved the universe. Adora swallowed and smiled.

"Um, hello. Your ships are amazing. It's such a...privilege to meet all of you, and you have such delicious food."

"We are honored by your gracious words."

"We took great care to ensure that all foods would be non-toxic to Etherians."

"We are gratified that they are also delectable."

Adora tried to keep her smile. They were all staring at her, waiting for something. "So uh, do you want to see how strong I am or..."

"There is no need."

"We know your legendary might."

"Merely seeing you gives us hope for the future."

"You have done so much for us already."

"Well I'm glad I did. I'll be happy to bring some magic to your planet once you pick one. You've all been so kind." Adora looked back down at them. She was really at a loss of what to say. Normally she could throw a space ship or a rock or cleave a battlecruiser's armoured plate with her sword. Or at least give her usual speech about how She Ra could restore magic to planets, but once she did it was in their hands to use it. Instead there was just an awkward silence and those very kind but extremely intent eyes looking up at her, unblinking.

"Oh and...I'm sorry that you lost contact with your explorers. Maybe we can do something about that." Adora saw two things at once. The Cephalopodians all looked at each other in overjoyed shock, and Catra whipped her head around, clenched her jaw and glared at Adora. Ooops.

All hell broke loose, like back in the Fright Zone when the commissary was giving away surplus, expired ration bars. Every Cephalopidian that Adora had been speaking with rushed back to their ship-syndicate and summoned them with a whistle, and began excited talking amongst themselves. Glimmer looked up from her slime-mould canapes at Catra, then at Bow, then Adora. Seeing Adora's guilty expression Glimmer silently unleashed her signature groan. Bow just looked confused.  
The chaos lasted as long as snacks did, but soon they were seated again, and the Cephalopodians were once again all business.

"She Ra has graciously expressed concern over our missing explorers, lost on planet ~35.^π°832. We had hoped that her legendary powers might assist us in searching for them. Since she has raised the issue, we would humbly request that She Ra investigate the matter. Especially since the planet exhibits some unusual properties, which we are unacquainted with."

"But which She Ra may be."

Glimmer nodded, perfectly gracious and entirely concealing a frustration that was obvious only to people who could see her fist clenched beneath the table. "We are glad to assist. However we are loath to leave these negotiations before they are complete, and after them, we must begin assisting with resettlement..."

"We entirely agree, the negotiations must continue. But you have them so well in hand? Could She Ra be spared?"

Adora looked up hopefully. She wanted to go. Exploring a planet with magic, rescuing lost explorers (or retrieving their bodies) - this was what she was good at. This is what She Ra was for. She could even chart some new maps. And she could do all of this alone, without anyone watching her. Besides, this was the right thing to do. 

Glimmer looked across the table at the dozens of expectant eyes. She sighed, audibly this time. "I suppose she could be."

At Adora's other hand, Catra's eyes and ears drooped, and she let all her breath out. She looked up and spoke in a measured tone.

"If She Ra is to leave us, she will need a companion. I will accompany her."

The Cephalopodians all looked at each other and nodded, and Glimmer bowed her head in resignation.

"We thank you. We ask that you return them to us alive if they still live, or collect their cuttle-bones if they are dead."

"If they are to be buried, we wish to bury them on our new homeworld."

The rest of the negotiations picked up where they left off, but Catra didn't say anything else for the entire afternoon. Sometimes Adora caught her looking at the side of her eyes at her, looking either sad or annoyed, it was hard to tell.

The rest of the day was a blur. Adora couldn't concentrate and was already busy thinking about how she'd prepare for a trip into the unknown. She had a mental packing list ready before dinner, and surreptitiously studied the star chart on her data pad all through the appetizers. After dessert (which was shockingly good if completely unidentifiable) she took Catra away by the hand and pulled her into a spare corridor.

"Adora, now's not the time to make out, I'm really not in the mood." Catra said, already turning to leave.

"Catra, I didn't pull you away just to make out. Though I mean, if you wanted to..." Adora gave a joking grin.

"No."

"Fine. I want to plan this trip! I already have a packing list and I think I know the route we can take and we need to talk to the Cephalopodians. They have more detailed reports that they uploaded to Darla when we docked and this data is fascinating!"

"You're really loving this, aren't you?"

"Of course! I can do something useful and not just...stand around."

Catra growled. "I'm not really excited about you facing death to retrieve the bodies of 24 Cephalopodians that are certainly already dead, Adora. Let's think this through. It's not worth it."

"But this planet has magic! And if it has magic, maybe I can figure something out about magic, about Etheria, maybe about She Ra? I don't know, Catra, this feels important."

Catra sighed. "Yeah, great. Well if it's important to you we better do this right. I'm not losing you because you flew in with some harebrained scheme."

"I wouldn't dream of it, Catra. Besides, it'll be fine. I have you."

Even Catra couldn't help but smile at that, however weakly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Notes on the Cephalopodians:
> 
> The Cephalopodians are an anarchist society divided into self-administered and self-selected syndicates, at least one per ship. All their decisions are guided by custom and consensus. Extremely empathetic and cooperative, they are eager to find common ground and reluctant to argue. True to their cuttlefish-like ancestors, they prefer to run rather than fight, and have lived for 300 years escaping Prime’s armada and the various local warlords who would subjugate them. 
> 
> They have 7 biological sexes and shift between them depending upon the sexes of other surrounding Cephalopodians and where they are in their reproductive cycle. These sexes include an ‘active courting’ sex, a ‘wooed’ or semi-passive courting sex, the egg-bearing sex, the sperm-bearing sex, the pregnancy-bearing sex, the birthing sex, and the nursing/nurturing sex. In addition to the sexes involved in reproduction, there is a neutral state which is also used (in the diminutive) for children. All sexes have corresponding genders in their language and culture, but like most species the gender identity of a Cephalopodian doesn’t correspond to their biological sex, necessarily. In fact, it is considered untoward to address a Cephalopodian by their sex unless one is making sexual advances on them. Otherwise, one is expected to refer to them by their identity and presentation. They indicate their gender presentation and identity by the color of their irises.


	3. Into the Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soundtrack: Arcturus - The Sham Mirrors/Arcturian

When Adora left her, Catra went to a cargo bay, found an empty metal crate, and tore it to shreds. She sealed the door and screamed. Every instinct was telling her that this would end in disaster. Every experience she'd had in her 20 and more years had taught her that this kind of thing never ended well. And there was the woman she loved, the woman that could make her angrier than anyone else in the universe, telling her that everything would be fine. Being stupidly confident, happy, even! Bullshit. Adora was glad to go off and risk her neck for some dead aliens. Catra even liked the Cephalopodians, they were cute as hell, but a corpse was a corpse. And she didn't want Adora's corpse added to all the others. 

Why? Why was Adora like this? Catra's hair stood on end and her tail flared out as she remembered Shadow Weaver's 'lessons' to Adora about her destiny, and duty, and sacrifice. Catra hadn't understood what Shadow Weaver had been doing to Adora until that snake had revealed her plans under Mystacor. Then it had been clear enough, and a couple months later Micah had cleared up any of Catra’s lingering doubts about what Shadow Weaver wanted from her ‘chosen ones.’ Catra ripped apart another box. She remembered what Adora had told her about Light Hope and she wanted that damn AI to come back just so we could smash her circuits into dust. Of course Adora was going off to save 24 people who were dead already. It is what she had always done. It’s what those bastards had groomed her for and what the rest of the fucking universe was all too happy to welcome. She was going to use herself up, get herself killed, and there would be nothing left for Catra, or for Adora herself.

And Adora didn't even take this seriously. Was she bored? Almost certainly. But it wasn't like Catra found all these diplomatic games exciting. Alright, maybe she did. Maybe she was good at them. But couldn't Adora see how much safer she was flashing her sword around and flexing her stupid muscles than diving headlong into some fight or journeying into the unknown? She screamed again. And then, as her scream died down, it caught in her throat and curdled into a sob. The thing that frustrated Catra the most was knowing that this time, and forever after, she didn't have a choice. She couldn't leave Adora again. She couldn't lose her again. So she was doomed to stand at Adora's side while she risked herself, until one day when Adora's luck ran out and Catra was left without her, forever. 

Catra looked up and saw Melog through the blur of her tears. They walked right up to her and put their head in her lap, and did that growl-purr. Adora insisted that Catra sometimes made the same noise, but Catra was pretty sure her girlfriend was hearing things. She looked at Melog, sniffed, wiped her eyes and thought back to Adora.

Maybe Adora was going to die. Everyone did eventually. For now...even one more day with her was worth it. Even if she died tomorrow, it was worth it, Catra thought as she stroked Melog’s head. They'd promised each other that they would stand beside each other, and finally sticking to her end of the bargain had been the best decision Catra had ever made. It still was. Even if her heart was going to get broken, worse than it had before. Catra felt the tears start to flow again. Catra wiped her eyes again and breathed deeply. This sucked. Fuck all of this. Being with Adora was the best thing that ever happened to her and right now it hurt like hell. But there wasn't anything to do but go with Adora and keep her from getting herself killed. She didn't have a choice.

Catra pet Melog and thanked them, then left the Cargo bay, ears flattened, tail swishing behind her. She found Adora talking to some Cephalopodian navigators and stellar cartographers, charting out possible paths through the nebula, around the gas ejections and radiation bursts of the cluster of supermassive stars that ringed this world. They were also yammering about some other shit that just screamed once again that this was a terrible idea. A Cephalopodian scientist was talking excitedly - then again, they were almost always excited.

"...modeling the radiation for the past 50,000 years for this planet's local group and recent supernova activity, this planet shouldn't have an atmosphere. To say nothing of life! Not even bacteria should be able to survive."

"And yet, here we have not only life but sentient life, with all indications of a sophisticated society."

The next Cephalopodian nodded and brought up a hologram of the planet - a vast ocean with ice caps at each pole and a few small continents clustered here and there, with a big one somewhat north of the equator. "The planet is mostly water, and it is quite cool on average, but doesn't suffer the extreme temperatures at the poles or equator that some worlds do. As you can see the biggest continent is right here, and initial surveys indicate that this continent also has the most developed settlements. Our team was planning to land there on Galactic Month 242.18 and survey the largest city."

"There is another thing," one of the other scientists said. "This asteroid field here, that forms rings around the planet - I've been analyzing it since I first received the data read out. It's not rock, or ice, or dust. It's metallic and ceramic debris, much of it shaped into flat surfaces ."

Catra's ears perked up. Adora jumped on this. "So it's artificial."

"It appears to be the remains of star ships or space stations. A great many starships in fact. Whatever it is, it appears to be quite old. Its radiation signature matches the ambient radiation of this star system, so its own radioactive elements have long since decayed.” Adora looked up, and Catra could tell she was wondering about the First Ones. Adora had never seen this system on a First One’s map, and it wasn't on Horde Prime's star charts, either.

Adora thanked the Cephaalopodians and they filed out, chatting quietly about how much of an honor it was to serve She Ra. As soon as the last of them left, Adora transformed back to her own, smaller form, and immediately set up a series of charts and holograms in front of her.   
Catra slid into the room. "Hey Adora," she said, trying to sound cheerful but mostly sounding surly instead.

"Oh hi Catra. Did you hear what they said?"

"The part about how nothing on this planet should be alive, or the part where these pretty rings are a bunch of old smashed up spaceships? Neither of those things are worrying at all, by the way. Not like they're both perfect reasons not to explore this star system in the first place."

"Yeah that was about it. Now we just need to plot a course in here and figure out the best way to scan the planet and find the missing explorers. They didn't mention First Ones ruins but I wonder if there are any...with space wreckage that old, who else could it be?" Adora turned around and looked at Catra for the first time. Her expression of eagerness deflated into one of concern. 

"Catra, you've been crying." It wasn't a question.

Catra stood there, looking right into Adora's grey eyes, which were so full of worry. She tried to think of a joke, but she couldn't come up with anything, so she deflected in the weakest way she could. "Oh it's nothing."

"It's not nothing, Catra. Something has been bothering you and you don't have to tell me but don't pretend you're not upset."

"Fine Adora. I'm upset. Happy?"

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"Is there anything I can do to make it better?"

"Not go on this mission?"

Adora slumped her shoulders and looked away. "If you are asking me to...really asking me. I could say no. You could find me an excuse. You're good at that."

"But you want to go, Adora. I can tell." Damnit, Adora, we both know you want this. Don't twist the knife by asking me to tell you to give it up. You wanting this is half the problem.

"I do. More than I've wanted to do anything like this in a while." 

Catra dug a nail into her palm.

"And that's why I'm upset. Because you want this so badly, and I look at it, and all I can think about is all the ways you can get killed. It's like you're deliberately trying to find ways to get hurt, or inventing new ways to put yourself in danger." Catra didn't add her final thought - can't we just be happy together? Why do you need this? Am I not enough?

"I'm not, Catra. You think I would miss out on another sixty years of driving you nuts?"

Catra took a step back. "Alright, no, you're not going to get out of this by proposing."

"I'm not proposing, idiot."

"That's my line. And you are still trying to distract me."

Adora's smug smirk dropped away immediately. "I'm sorry. You are being really open with me. Thank you."

"Now you sound like Perfuma."

"And now who's trying to change the subject? Listen, Catra, I want this. I don't even know why. For so long I've felt. I dunno. I feel weird. And it's fine when I am with you or even Bow and Glimmer but then I go to these big galas and all these people look at me and...I don't know. I don’t feel right."

Catra sighed. Of course Adora couldn't say what she wanted. "Well when you figure it out let me know. But I want you alive, and this idea is stupid."

Adora looked away for a time, then spun around, eyes alight. "What if I put you in charge? I will do whatever you say. You can tell us to turn around whenever you want. That way you don't have to worry about me doing anything crazy."

"You would really do that for me?” Catra looked up at Adora, who just nodded. Catra rolled her eyes and looked away. “Ufffhhh. Fine. Let's do this. Now what was your stupid plan again?"

Planning went like it always did - Adora laid out her ideas, Catra poked holes in them, Adora improvised solutions or revealed she had already thought of this or that contingency. Catra scoffed, Adora smirked and laughed and blustered even more the more Catra mocked her. And through it all the two of them drew closer together until they were half-wrestling and batting one another's hands away. It went on until Adora gave Catra that look and they somehow made it back to her cabin without causing a diplomatic incident.

Catra awoke, screaming. Adora was dead. She'd been holding back, pulling her punches, trying to find a peaceful solution and some bastard had taken advantage of her weakness. Just like Catra had so many times before.

"Babe what's wrong?" 

Catra came to her senses. Adora's arms were around her. That was Adora's voice in her ear and her breath on her neck. Adora was alive. Catra tried to tell that to her racing heart and burning nerves. She felt tears on her face. Damn it.

“Just a dream, Adora. Just...give me a minute okay?”

“Hey I can’t complain, I’ve punched you in my sleep enough times. I’m here for you, okay?”

She’s here for you. She’s here for you. Catra tried to tell herself that, and push away all the thoughts of what was coming the next day - dodging gamma ray bursts and weaving through magnetic fields to get to some death world. Her mind raced through the maps, their plans, and all the flaws in them, and all the other flaws she didn’t even know about yet. Catra had to force herself not to sit up and run through her data pad in the middle of the night. Instead she let Adora’s arms enfold her and clutched her hands for dear life. Soon enough, Adora was snoring lightly and Catra was still staring at the darkened wall.

Some time in the night, Melog came in and curled up at Catra’s feet. Hemmed in on both sides by two beings she trusted completely, Catra felt herself relax, like she had when she was a kid and Adora wrapped her in a blanket. At some point Catra must have fallen back asleep because it was Adora who woke her up with coffee under her nose. 

“Good morning. Sorry to wake you but like you said last night, we have to head out early.” 

Catra opened an eye. Adora smiled down at her with a sweetness that was especially obnoxious at 0445. But Catra only allowed herself ten seconds to close her eye again. Now wasn’t the morning to roll over, force Adora to try to wake her up and drag her back into bed with her. Getting up at 0430 had been Catra’s idea, after all. She’d been pretty annoyed at Adora at the time and might have been trying to spite her. She made a mental note not to schedule her wakeup times when she was pissed off. Catra opened both eyes, bolted upright and seized the coffee.

“Thanks babe. Fresh coffee makes my waking up at what would be the ass crack of dawn just a little better.”

“Fresh coffee and my smiling face I hope?” 

“Honestly I could do with a little less grinning, idiot.” Catra growled slightly to herself as she took her first gulp of coffee. Adora chuckled and Catra handed the mug back to her and dressed in a hurry, nearly tripping over the bag Adora had packed for her

“You all ready? I put all your usual things in there - and our survival supplies and rations are already in the shuttle.” Adora said brightly. Catra swore her cheeriness was there just to mock her. 

Catra ran her fingers through her hair and pulled down on the shoulders of her top to straighten it. “Ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s blast off.”

It was only a few turns down the corridors to get to the shuttle. Adora was practically whistling on her way, while Catra had to make some effort to keep her claws retracted and her curses inaudible. Melog walked up to her and she tried to calm her annoyance and fear, if only to keep him from giving her away. When they got to the shuttle bay Catra was shocked to find Bow waiting for them, and even more shocked to find Glimmer with him, looking like she’d been brought back from death. Seeing Sparkles even more tired and miserable than herself did cheer her up a little, and Catra nearly grinned like Adora just to annoy Her Majesty - except Glimmer was probably too groggy to notice. Still it was nice to know Sparkles cared.

“We’re here to see you off,” Bow said with a smile. “Need help with anything?”

“Oh I think I...I think we’ve got it all. Thanks Bow!” Adora ran up into the shuttle before she was even done talking, leaving Catra facing Bow and Glimmer leaning against him. 

"If you're here to tell me to take care of Adora, don't worry, I won't let this idiot get hurt." Well, I can try. For what it's worth, Catra thought to herself. Maybe that will be enough.

"Actually I was going to tell you to take care of yourself."

"Pfft, that's what I'm best at. I'll be fine. You guys look pretty dumb standing there worrying about me…" Catra started with a smile.

Glimmer cut her off, forcing herself awake enough to stand up straight and look Catra in the eye. "No we're serious. We're worried about you, Catra. Do it…" Glimmer struggled to find the words, still sleepy.

"Do it for Adora if you can't do it for yourself. You didn't see Adora back when you were apart, much...but she's so much happier with you. She’s so much more...alive. She needs you." Bow finished.

"I mean now she's also kind of an arrogant jackass." Glimmer said. "But in a fun way."

Catra snorted. "You're damn right she is. Alright, Bow, just bring Sparkles back to bed before she falls asleep in the shuttle and we accidentally take her with us."

Bow chuckled and nodded. Glimmer waved weakly and muttered ‘take care of yourself, horde scum’, and they left. Well, they may be dopes, but they care, so that’s also nice, I guess. Catra was used to thinking about how much they cared about Adora, but she was reminded that they cared about her, too. Melog looked after them and grunted out a slight, sharp purr.

“Yeah I like them too, buddy. Just don’t tell anyone.” Catra turned and boarded the shuttle. 

It was cramped inside. There was only the cockpit, really- two seats that could recline into bunks, the usual controls and holographic readouts, and in the back a very basic food dispenser and a tiny head where the sink overhung the vacu-toilet so you needed to sit on the shitter while you washed your hands. Adora was already in the pilot’s seat, running through the final checks, chatting amiably with the shuttle’s computer. Catra looked around at the displays and diagnostic readouts, looking for anything weird. She didn’t have a good head for this technical stuff like Bow but she’d nearly memorized the ‘normal’ readings on the shuttle. Unlike Darla, Entrapta had built the shuttle more or less from scratch, scavenging First One’s tech, pieces from Hordak and wrecked ships from Horde Prime’s fleet. Before she’d delivered the shuttle to them she’d cheerfully told them that ‘this one hasn’t blown up, unlike prototypes 1a-1e! For now I’m considering it a success!’ That ‘For Now’ hung in Catra’s mind as Adora sealed the ship’s hatch, as the airlock opened and as Adora powered on the ship’s engines. 

“Alright Katrina, punch it!” Oh yeah, this ship was named Katrina. Catra had once joked to Entrapta that Katrina, Darla and Emily should have a girl’s night out and Entrapta had excitedly captured Catra’s ‘wonderful idea’ in her voice recorder. As Adora and the autopilot cleared the Cephalopodian fleet and engaged the warp drive, Catra tried to think more about Entrapta’s other robot friends, and her own ship Esmerelda II, and not think about the warp-drive overload that had claimed Esmerelda I in her shakedown cruise. What kind of wacky hijinks were Entrapta and Hordak up to, Catra wondered, trying not to focus on the sound of the warp core powering up. Man, she was on edge. She looked out at the crushing void of space, at the distant stars - she saw a cluster of incredibly bright blue ones ahead and to the port. Was that where they were going? She remembered something Hordak had told her, looking up at the sky, before he had left.

“The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me.” That had been it. Just a stray thought, a pensive moment, without explanation. But sometimes Catra saw the vastness of space and couldn’t help but agree. Like now. Or maybe it wasn’t the eternal silence, or the infinity of space, but the very particular fear of whatever lurked at the end of their actual flight path. 

And then the stars all shifted colors, distorted and blurred and turned into a swirling kaleidoscope as their tiny ship bent and folded space around them. Well, at least they didn’t blow up. Catra looked over at Melog, whose mane was standing on end. “It’s okay, buddy.” She said, both to Melog and herself. She unstuck her claws from the armrest and reached out to offer it to Melog, who rubbed against it. Adora reached over and took her other hand.

“Hey love. You okay?” Adora looked over her shoulder and smiled out of one corner of her mouth.

Well, might as well try honesty. “Not really, but this helps.”

Adora broke out into a full grin. She was about to say something self-congratulatory, but she caught Catra’s eyes beginning to roll and just smiled like an idiot instead.

“Well we have 29 hours of warp flight before we get there. And it’s just the two of us. What do you want to do in the meantime?” 

“Adora, it’s 0500 and we’re in a shuttle. Please tell me that’s not a come-on.” 

“Hey even I’m not that bad. I mean, if you wanted to…” Adora shot Catra a particularly obnoxious smirk.

“You’re an idiot. Besides, Melog’s here.”

“I care little for your mating rituals, though I am glad if you are happy, ” they said.

“You’re not helping, Melog.”

“Oh are they also suggesting that it would be a great way to pass the time?”

Catra sighed. Adora looked away.

“Sorry, I was just playing around. I can shut up. I know you’re stressed about this ”

“And you’re not!?”

Adora looked up for a moment, as though considering. “No, not really.”

“Well that’s because you’re an idiot.”

“So I hear. And yet here you are, following me. Into the jaws of death and everything. What’s your word for that again?”

“See, you’re so dumb you’ve made me stupid too.”

“All those diplomats keep telling me I’m an inspiration. I guess it’s just what I do.”

Catra just laughed to herself, and smiled against her better judgement. Adora beamed. Damnit, Adora. Looking into those grey eyes, as full of dread as Catra was, there wasn’t any place in the universe she’d rather be.

“But seriously, you want to go over this planet and our approach again? I know we kind of rushed things last night.”

Well, that was one way to put ‘I was nibbling on your ear and whispering obscene and tantalizing suggestions in it while you were trying to work.’ But Catra did not make that retort out loud.

Adora looked at Catra more intently. “Well what do you think, Captain? After all, we’ve warped, we’re on our way, now you’re in charge.”

“I think I want to check over what you packed for me.”

“Do you not trust me? I think I know you pretty well.” 

“Sure you do. But I’m wondering what kind of nonsense you snuck into my space-bag.” Catra tore into her bag and started throwing carefully folded items all over the cockpit. A few extra sets of underwear landed on Melog, and another hit Adora’s face.

“Adora, I don’t need 12 pairs of undies. No wonder this thing is so stuffed.”

“We could be gone a while!”

“So I’ll turn them inside out and wear them again. Then I’ll do the smell test on them. I have a very sensitive nose, you know. I can trust the smell test.”

“Oh I remember the smell test.” Adora said with a chuckle.

“Thanks for remembering my data pad charger. Even if you did pack too many clothes. Adora, do you really think I’m going to need my parka? This thing takes up half the bag.”

“This planet is cold! Plus you look adorable in it.”

“Ugh. Wait. Why’d you pack this?” Catra’s hand felt a long, coiled piece of braided leather. She felt an involuntary stab of guilt and regret.

“Oh, you found your whip? I remember you telling me that Scorpia had given it to you a few months ago, and she’d told me how much you’d like that whip you got in the Crimson Wastes. So I thought if we’re going to go on an adventure I might as well pack you some adventuring gear.” Catra felt her tail flick and her fur flair. She could see Melog’s mane shifting from blue to purple. She breathed deeply and closed her eyes, and felt her body relax. Now wasn’t the time to break down in front of Adora, let alone lash out at her.

“Well anyway, let’s go over our approach path into this system. Catra said as she stuffed her clothes back into the bag.  
They reviewed the flight path - it was contorted, avoiding the worst of the nebula and dodging the ejection jets of the nearby variable stars. Then they would enter the system. That’s where Melog would come in. Catra figured whatever wiped out the Cephalopodian expedition wouldn’t think to check for a magically cloaked ship. Even if whoever or whatever it was had magic. Then again, chances were the explorers had been killed by some terrifying space bullshit or by some horrifying thing on the planet, not by something with a brain and advanced technology that could track them through space and attack them there. Still, Catra was feeling like Melog’s shroud of invisibility was the only place she could be safe on this mission. 

Then they went over the planet. Adora brought up holograms, and even started drawing maps of the surface while Catra tried to nap. All the surveys were incomplete, but the more Adora looked at them the more she went on and on about possible First Ones ruins. Which didn’t make sense. If the First Ones had been there, why was there still magic? Horde Prime had conquered Krytis before they could suck it dry, but Horde Prime had never been to this place. 

“Well maybe the First Ones left because of something else?”

“Like, someone powerful enough to fight them off? Something powerful enough to smash a fleet of starships into a fine debris field and give the planet a new set of rings, maybe?” 

Adora nodded, half conceding the point. Catra tried to put the idea out of her mind. That was too bad even for her to think about.

Adora wasn’t done yet, though. “Not necessarily. Maybe they couldn’t deal with the radiation, or a star next to them went nova. They seem to do that a lot around here.” 

“Great, that makes me feel so much better.”

“Well if Entrapta were here she’d tell us that the chances of a supernova while we are nearby is several million to one.”

“Then she’d also tell us that it would kill us instantly if it -did- happen. Then she would laugh, and smile, and wander off and start humming to herself.”

Adora laughed. “She definitely would.”

“I’m glad our death is so amusing, Adora.”

“I’m not worried. Maybe She Ra can block the blast of a supernova.”

“Can we not find out?”

As their day wore and as the ship’s indicator snaked along their flight path, Catra grew more and more nervous. Planning was relaxing because it made every shitty thing that could happen into another piece of a puzzle. It was a problem to solve and not some doom looming over Catra and the woman she loved. But as they got closer, everything became more and more real. It wasn’t normally like this. Maybe Catra was losing her edge. Or maybe Adora’s obnoxious good mood was just driving her nuts. Or maybe...maybe the more that idiot became a part of her life, the more afraid Catra was of losing her. All this thinking about her feelings shit was not making things better.

Adora went on and on about all the neat stuff on this planet, and Catra kept a mental list of all the ways that neat stuff could kill them. Adora talked excitedly about the inhabitants - those furry Six limbed aliens with three sexes, however that worked. Apparently the ones that the Cephalopodians had met were nomadic hunter-gatherers, but the planet showed signs of cities and agriculture. So somewhere out there there were probably empires and armies. Great.

After a long day they reclined their seats and tried to sleep, reaching out to touch one another’s hands before they drifted off. Catra had drunk Perfuma’s calming tea and taken a couple of sleep-hormone tablets. Hey, whatever works, she told herself. Somehow, they did work, because she awoke from a dead sleep when the proximity alarm sounded to let them know they were arriving in system.


	4. The Thing That Stalks the Stars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I promised a space dragon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soundtrack: The Lord Weird Slough Feg: Hardworlder

Adora was awake before the alarm sounded, pouring over the sensor read-out. It was still mostly static and blurry images - the nebula and the radiation were playing havoc with everything. Catra awoke with a start, eyes darting, tail straight, claws out. Melog’s mane flashed red. Adora looked down and gave Catra her most calming smile.

“It’s all right. It’s just the proximity alarm. We’re dropping out of warp. If you want you can go back to sleep, captain. Sir.”

“Isn’t it my duty to command your dumb ass?” Catra asked, raising her seat back to sitting. 

“It is what captains, do, sir.”

“You’re enjoying this too much.” Catra said with a sideways look. “Where are our comms?”

“Gone, like we thought. We’ll need to warp out of the nebula to send a tachyon beam clear back to Darla and the Cephalopodians.” Adora went over what she had just said. Did she get it right? She had tried imagining the words coming out of Bow’s mouth, or Entrapta’s, and it sounded right from them. So it was probably right. Still, all this technical talk was still like a foreign language.

“Great.”

“All part of the plan. They’ll come get us if we don’t check in in five days.”

“I hate that part of the plan. Anything on sensors?”

“I was just checking. Fuzz and static. Some pretty nebula clouds, though.”

“I’ll be sure to admire them. When are we going to get out of this cloud?”

“Not sure. The Cephalopodian notes were hard to follow. Do you know what a Heliosheath is?”

Catra shook her head and shrugged.

“Me neither. But a star system shouldn’t have a nebula this close in. This place is...different. But we should be through it any moment.”

Catra looked down at Melog.”Alright buddy, do your thing.”

Melog glowed dully, then began to fade into a kind of mist, and soon Catra and Adora could see that same glow surround them and their entire ship, just like it had when they’d run Prime’s blockade over a year before. They were invisible. Catra breathed out, and a little of the tension left her.

She didn’t ask Adora any more questions. They just took in the clouds around them, and looked beyond to the pale white sun that was shining through them. Soon enough, just like Adora said, the nebula clouds parted and their tiny ship sailed on into the light of this system’s star. It was white, hot, and still quite distant. But the star was so hot and the planet was so cold that the planet itself shouldn’t be that far away - it was maybe 7 times further away from its star than most habitable planets. Adora took in the new sensor readings. This was all the information she had needed two days before, and now she still couldn’t understand half of it. She could sure use Entrapta right about now.

“You have no idea what half these readings mean, do you?” Catra asked

Adora stifled a frown and turned to Catra, smiling again. “No sir.”

“Why the hell did I do this?”

“I think it was something about you loving me. Ring a bell?”

“Nah, doesn’t seem right. Must have been morbid curiosity. Or maybe boredom.”

“Don’t pretend like you’re bored at those negotiations, Catra. You’re good at them. You love them.”

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“Oh right. You love them, Sir.” Adora saluted and chuckled.

“Okay but seriously does all this crap mean anything to you?”

“Like you said, about half of it does. We’re only about 3 hours travel from the planet at our current speed. We’ll need to start slowing down soon.”

“Well make it so. But where is this place?”

“Just off the port bow. There! You can see it! It’s looks kinda...blueish. Or white-ish It’ll get a lot bigger soon.”

“Oh huh. And nothing else?”

“No starships, no energy signatures, no weapons discharges, no sensor sweeps. No radio transmissions, no microwaves, x-rays...no gamma radiation except from the stars and their...star stuff…”

“I get it. These poor bastards don’t have spaceships or electricity or whatever. Still feels kinda weird though. Quiet.”

“Yeah.” Adora shook her head. “But it’s just what we’d expect. So everything’s fine. Except...”

“Except there’s no Celphalopodians, either, you mean?”

“No. No distress beacon. Not even the radio one. We should be getting that by now.”

“Well, didn’t really expect anything else. Alright, helm, take us in.” Catra said, gesturing forward. 

“Aye Aye.”

For the next couple hours Catra didn’t make another joke, and Adora didn’t try to tempt her. They both put on their spacesuits and set their helmets beside their seats, just in case. Even while she was zipping herself in Adora went over sensor read outs, again and again. They weren’t getting much - they weren’t using active sensors, only passive, so everything she saw was an echo or a reflection of the sun’s rays or some stray source of radiation out in the nebula. Passive sensors were mostly meant to track starships and other things with reactors and engines and shields. Not look at rocks in space. So Adora looked again and again for some sign of the Celphalopdians. So blip, some trace of them or their ship. If it had been destroyed they’d have seen debris glowing with gamma radiation. But there was nothing. Not yet. It was as though they’d disappeared.

“We want to try active sensors? Uh, sir?”

“No, that’s not the plan. We don’t know who could be hiding and watching.”

“Aye Aye. We’ll just need to get closer. A lot closer.”

The planet was growing in their viewscreen, brighter and brighter and then larger and larger. Soon they could see a halo of white light around it. Then they could see the rings, thin bands around the planet, and make out some of the planet itself - white ice caps at each pole and vast blue seas. A lot of clouds. This planet wouldn’t be very sunny. Finally they could make out the small island continents. But still no signs of the Celphalopodians. But they weren’t the only thing Adora was looking for.

Even the sun’s reflected rays were now enough to clearly scan the rings. The fragments in them were definitely metal, and ceramic, and very flat. Adora pulled up a visual in one of her holo-viewers and magnified as far as she could. It was unmistakable - the planet’s rings were the pulverized remains of an entire star fleet.

They drew even closer in, and the planet filled their vision. The shuttle began to spiral in toward it, caught by its gravity. They maneuvered into the debris field in the rings and synchronized their speed with all the other space junk, and cut their engines completely. All just as they’d planned. Even with Melog cloaking them, they couldn’t be too careful. And besides, they couldn’t keep up the cloak forever.

Adora scanned each of the continents next.

“Looking for the Cephalopodians, Adora?”

“Yes but also...I’m looking for the First Ones.”

“You still think they built something on this planet?”

“It would make sense...wait. There. That’s...it’s huge. Look at it.” Adora swiped at another holo-viewer, revealing the image of a vast, ruined city of prism-like buildings. “That’s it. It’s a First Ones Ruin.”

“Yeah you people sure did get around. But no signs of our missing explorers?”

“Nothing.”

“Well that’s all great for our report. But you know the schedule. We have 24 hours in orbit to find these guys, then we’re history.”

“Aye-Aye.” Adora went back to her scans of the city. It was on the biggest island continent, near its northern edge, surrounded by very tall mountains and what looked like ice fields. Adora took out her rough sketch from yesterday of the continent - there was a valley leading almost all the way to the ruined city. And there...Adora looked more closely. Was that a settlement? It was so hard to tell when people didn’t keep their lights on. Adora touched up her map a little, but then a passing piece of debris caught her eye. It was some shattered fragment of a much larger space ship. One side was perfectly flat, almost crystal like, like Darla or the First Ones Ruin on Etheria. The debris turned slowly, and as the faint sunlight caught it Adora could clearly see First One’s writing. There was no mistaking it - this planet was ringed with the wreckage of an entire First Ones fleet.

Adora looked at her scans again. There were no old spires or wrecked horde ships, none of the wreckage of Horde Prime. What else could have destroyed an entire First Ones Fleet? Could rebels like Mara’s have done this? A faint alarm sounded next to her, the slight ‘bing’ of a new contact on sensors. Catra turned to Adora, eyes wide.

“What’s that?”

“I don’t know. It’s not a ship. No engines, no radiation trail. No subspace wake. None of that other stuff Entrapta talks about. Maybe she could figure this out…”

“Well can we get a visual?”

“Not yet.”

“Damnit. Where’d it come from?”

“The planet. Somewhere on that big continent. The scanner I had looking at that ruin picked it up.”

“Well it can’t see us, right?”

“Right. We’re cloaked and we’ve got space junk all around us.”

“Why doesn’t that make me feel much better?”

Yet despite their perfect hiding spot and supernatural cloak, this thing was coming straight at them. Adora felt a strange feeling looking down at the planet, where this thing should be coming at them from. It was a feeling of...recognition. Whatever this was, she knew it. “Catra, I’ve got a strange feeling about this.”

“Oh really? I do too. I have a strange feeling that whatever’s out there ate our explorers.”

A sensor beeped again and the blur of a hologram solidified into a shape. It was long, snake like, or maybe lizard like. It had...wings, six of them, it was covered in what looked like scales. It had a beak-like mouth, a long, whip-like tail and six legs ending in six sets of talons. In space, it seemed small. For a living thing, it was enormous.

“Adora is that…”

“It’s a dragon.”

“It’s a dragon in space.”

Adora turned to Catra, meeting Catra’s horror with her own wonder. Catra shook her head.

“No, Adora, this isn’t good. This isn’t exciting. This could kill us. Even you, She Ra. Don’t you think it might have...Done all this?”

“I don’t know, but I’ve never seen something like this before. You think I could ride it? I still want to ride a dragon.”

“Adora, I don’t want to be around to find out more about this thing. And I definitely don't want you to get out and try to ride it.”

Adora swallowed her retort. She said only “You’re the skipper. But we are hidden. We don’t know it can see us. Still, maybe you should put on your helmet, Sir.” Catra nodded and they both put on their helmets.

Whether it could see them or not, it was getting closer, but soon it became clear that it wasn’t really heading straight for them. It headed into the rings perhaps 70,000 meters behind them and began weaving its way through the wreckage, gliding between fragments of hull plating and reactors and engines. It glowed, faintly. Its scales were a purple-red, but they shifted and changed colors in the light. It had five eyes - two on each side and one in the center of its head. It turned its head right and left, up and down, bringing everything around it into the gaze of that eye.

And then Adora heard a voice in her head.

"Greetings, Eternian. I know you are with me, above my world. I have foreseen your coming. So you are the one who slew the god-tyrant of the universe. No mean feat, though it does not impress me as much as it may impress others."

Adora looked over at Catra. Her hair was on end, her pupils were wide and her tail stood straight up. Her ears were pulled back. Melog's mane was a burning red ring around their head, and they were snarling. Catra looked at Adora with a look of panic.

"Adora can you hear her?"

"Yeah I can."

"This isn't good Adora. She's going to find us, she's going to hurt us. She's going to hurt you and she's going to make me…"

Adora furrowed her brow. "Catra what is she saying to you?"

"You don't know?" Catra stopped and thought, then came to the same realization that Adora had - they were hearing different things. "Then...then you don't want to know. We need to get out of here."

Adora looked around and realized that the haze of magic around them was dissipating. “Catra, we’re decloaking!” Adora yelled. Fortunately they were still dead in space, hopefully invisible unless the dragon looked right at them.

“I’m sorry I can’t help it! Now I’m seeing things! Adora, we need to leave.”

But as Catra spoke, Adora saw things in her own mind - it was as though she was imagining them herself, but another mind was picturing them for her and placing the images in her head. She saw the same scene that she saw outside of the windscreen, only there was no debris, just a massive flotilla of crystal-like starships. And then, dragons, not many, flying up to meet them, and lasers firing, and dragons breathing fire or beams of light from their mouths, and dragons falling back toward the planet, and the ships exploding, one by one, until they were shattered and pulverized into a cloud of shards suspended over the planet and one dragon remained, flying through the wreckage. She saw the planet’s orbit stretch them into rings, and then she saw a different ship approach. She saw it fly up and down from the planet, and then she saw a dragon glide up on the aether and snatch it from space, like a falcon taking a pigeon mid-flight. Her vision changed and she saw the kind but frightened faces of the Cephalopodians, wounded, tired, alive, looking up at her with 96 eyes of different colors. 

Adora snapped her head over to look at Catra. Catra’s own eyes were wide, she wasn’t looking at anything, every hair was standing on end. She was shaking her head slightly, and whispering. ‘No, no. no. Please stop. Please stop.’

“Catra! The Cephalopodians are alive!”

Catra started and stared at Adora, eyes still wide and wild. Melog was shrieking. 

“Adora we need to leave now. Now!”

“Sir, did you hear me? The explorer’s are alive! And if we move then that dragon will see us! We need to…”

“We need to leave, that’s an order!”

Adora breathed out, closed her eyes, and nodded. She’d promised she would obey Catra as her commander, and here they were. She swiped the controls, pointed the ship out of the debris field, and powered the engines to full. They couldn’t warp yet, not without a course calculated and not in the planet’s gravity well, but they could in maybe 15 seconds. The computer began its calculations as soon as Adora pushed the button, and the warp core whined and hummed. Then the ship rocketed to life, gluing Catra and Adora to their seats and Melog to the rear bulkhead. They were approaching escape velocity in 3 seconds.

“There you are, Eternian!” Adora heard in her head. There was a flash, and an alarm.

And then the whole world exploded. Every alarm rang. The shuttle jumped, and shook, and began to spin until they were pointed -back- at the planet. The engines sputtered wildly and then cut out. There was a whoosh of air leaving the cabin, and then silence. They’d lost all their pressure in a second. Adora glanced behind her - Melog was still wedged against the back wall, Catra was still buckled into her chair. Good. Adora swiped at the controls. She saw all the indicators falling as the ship lost fuel and power. Adora hit the distress beacon release to shoot off a probe to broadcast their location and flight data. In the same motion she swiped the controls, turning off system after system - sensors, comms, life support, navigation, warp core, main engines. She powered back on the emergency thrusters. There was a single green light in the sea of red alert holograms. Adora smirked. She blasted the thrusters to full, and took the helm. It was crazy, but if they were going down, there was only one place to go.

“Captain, we’re going in!”

There was no response in the communicator in her helmet. Adora looked back. Catra was still, staring at nothing, whispering something to herself. 

“Captain I said we can’t escape, we’re going to make an emergency landing!”

Catra snapped back. “We can’t escape? Adora we need to escape. We need to get away from that thing! We need to get out of here…”

Adora turned back to the planet, growing larger and larger, and to the auxiliary indicators for their angle of approach. They were already entering the upper reaches of the planet’s atmosphere.

“Sir we have no engines and no power for warp and no oxygen. We can’t get out. The only way is down.”

Adora heard a choking sound through her headset, and felt a hand on her shoulder. “Do what you need to do Adora.”

Adora nodded. She looked at her angle of approach again. She powered on navigation for an instant, flicked the controls to correct their course, and turned it off again. She powered off the thrusters and powered on the shields, which began to glow against the atmosphere thickening all around them.

“Adora?”

“Yeah Catra?”

Now the shields and the thickening air were incandescent around them. If they could see themselves, they’d be streaking through the sky like a shooting star.

“I’d say this has been the best year of my life, but that’s not saying much is it?” Adora heard Catra force a laugh and choke down tears. “I love you so much it scares me. Everything has been worth it, Adora.”

“I’d watch what you say Catra. After we walk away from this landing I’m never going to let you live that down.”

Adora heard another forced laugh, and felt Catra’s grip tighten on her shoulder. She reached up her own hand and grasped Catra. She looked behind her and smiled at Catra, who smiled back through her tears.

The ground was getting closer. A proximity alarm sounded, then another alarm - auxiliary power to the shields was failing. One final alarm, and then a roar, and the controls went dead. Auxiliary power failed, the shields dropped and the whole ship caught fire. Oh damn. Time for Plan B. Adora unbuckled her seatbelt and whispered to herself. “For the honor of Greyskull!” and she felt herself grow and glow. She looked Catra in the eyes. “We’re getting out of here.”

The ship groaned and strained and the deck buckled under Adora as she ripped the straps off Catra and took both Catra and Melog in her hands. The shuttle was disintegrating in midair. The wind screen burst inwards in a sheet of flame and titanium glass shards. Up was down, everything was spinning, and the flames gushed in from outside or from the fuel or somewhere, burning their clothes and skin, and Adora couldn't find the hatch. So she slashed a new one open with her sword and leapt out, turning her sword into a shield to ward off the flames and still holding on to Catra and Melog with her other arm.

Now it was Adora streaking through the sky as a meteor. Her shield broke the air in front of them and deflected the searing heat and blazing flames, mostly. They shot through the air, down and down, until the shield glowed red and they gradually slowed in the now thick, breathable air. Now they were just in free fall, and it was almost calm by comparison. Adora flew, floated, weightless for a second until she saw the sea rushing toward them. Somewhere over her head the shuttle's fragments streaked toward land. Adora tucked Melog into one arm and Catra Into the other and braced herself and both of them against her shield as the gray water rose to meet her. There was a tremendous thud, and what should have been a bone-shattering impact against her arm. She felt waves pulling her, then something else dragging her up and onward. Through it all she held on to Catra with one hand and Melog’s neck with the other. Waves pummeled her, she couldn’t breathe, she could feel Catra limp in her arm. And then she looked up and saw Melog drag her onto a rocky beach. It was a good thing that golems could swim, she thought, then she pulled Catra the rest of the way out of the surf and took off her cracked, partially flooded and now useless helmet. Catra's space suit was burned and shredded, and Adora could see burns and gashes underneath. She focused all her love, her care, her hope into her hands and felt Catra warm and begin to move. Catra coughed, blinked and looked at her.


	5. Snow, Stone and Sea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soundtrack: Bathory - Twilight of the Gods

Catra woke as a wave of pain rolled over her, broke and ebbed into a dozen different dull aches. She was cold, and wet, and the first thing she saw was Adora’s face looking down at her, loving and dopey and comforting. Adora was whole, healthy, alive, happy. She wasn't torn apart, bloody, dead eyed, begging for her life, or screaming in agony. Adora was really here. Catra reached up and caressed her cheek.

"You're alive! You're here!"

"You're one to talk," Adora said with a chuckle. "You had me scared for a bit."

Catra moved her hand up behind Adora's head and pulled her in for a kiss. She felt her with her lips, tasted her, breathed her in. Catra broke off and looked into her girlfriend's eyes as they opened again and smiled down at her. This was what was real. This was real, Catra told herself again, focusing on the image in front of her and trying to drive those other pictures from her mind and forget that voice in her head, the voice that promised her that Adora would die, and that Catra would watch it happen. 

“Hey are you okay? I know you just fell out of space. Did I heal you okay? Are you dizzy or dazed or…”

“I’m fine, Adora.” Catra looked away. “Well... I don’t think I have a concussion, or you healed it, anway. I just…I don’t feel like this is real.” 

Adora gently turned Catra’s head back so that they were eye to eye again. "This is real. We’re alive. We’re alive!” Adora started giggling to herself, then chuckling, then cackling, until she was doubled over on the rough sand, laughing her head off. Catra couldn’t help joining in, feeling the relief wash over her as she felt the cold air on her fur and skin and felt the water squelching in what remained of her spacesuit.

“Adora, how did we survive that? Where’s the spaceship? I think I got knocked out.”

Adora scratched behind her ears and looked sheepish. “Well, I kinda cut us out of the shuttle as it fell apart, and then re-entered the atmosphere with only my shield for protection and with you and Melog tucked under my arms. Then I broke our fall with the shield. But dragging us to dry land was all Melog. The shuttle? I guess the smoke there and there and there is probably pieces of the shuttle.”

“And let me guess, the only thing keeping you from declaring yourself the universe’s biggest badass is knowing that I’m going to tell you that it’s insane that any of that shit worked?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

Catra rolled her eyes, then looked sideways at Adora. “Still, I guess I should thank you.”

“Well make sure you thank Melog, too, I’m not that good a swimmer.”

“Thanks buddy.” Catra said, and Melog came over and nuzzled her. 

Catra stood up and looked around for the first time. They were on a low beach of rough sand and rocks, with some kind of sandbar or spit beside them. All in front of them was a gravel bar, nearly half a mile wide or more, and flowing through it was a river - or Catra thought so, she couldn’t see it, only hear it rushing continuously in between the rhythmic pounding of the surf. Beyond the gravel bar on each side was a great, dark forest of impossibly tall, blueish-green trees, like the few she’d seen growing in the Kingdom of Snows - Spruce or something like that, Perfuma would know. Catra didn’t. The forest quickly rose into a mountain slope, which went up and up and up, impossibly tall, steeper and steeper, until it ended in snow-capped bare peaks. Looking inland, the mountains were higher still, capped in great cracked masses of ice and shrouded by clouds. If Catra wasn’t stranded and the wind weren’t blowing straight through her and her teeth weren’t already chattering Catra would have maybe called it pretty. 

But she was freezing, and she was wet, and the weak light was already fading, so everything about this place screamed that it was trying to kill them. And they had nothing - even their space suits were shredded, wet and useless. Catra looked at the palls of smoke marking the fragments of their ship, their supplies, their hopes of leaving this place. Catra shivered more as the wind whipped at her. Snow was beginning to fall. This planet is the worst, Catra thought. Catra remembered how they got here, and she felt anger and guilt and fear rise up in her, swirling around in her guts and up her throat like they had so many times before. She felt the searingly shameful memory of her panic, and she tried to push it away, to find something else for her anger and disgust with herself to latch onto. This was Adora’s stupid fucking idea, her chance to play the savior to all the randos of the universe - why the fuck was Catra here? Because her girlfriend was bored? Because being a big damn hero to everyone wasn’t good enough for Adora? And now Adora was going to die and Catra was going to watch it happen and it was all Adora’s fault. Catra felt her fur bristle and her ears draw back and heard Melog growl. She turned back to glare at Adora, but she could see Adora was already thinking something similar, if her downcast expression was any guide. Good, she deserved to feel bad.

“I should have known this would happen.” Catra said, without venom or warmth. “I did know this would happen. What the fuck were you trying to do, anyway, crash land us into a mountain?”

Adora looked up, and her eyes blazed. “I was trying to get us to the Cephalopodian spaceship, since that’s the only thing that can get us off this planet!”

“Oh great idea, what are we going to do, just steal it from under that dragon’s nose?” Catra didn’t tell Adora everything else that was flooding into her mind. - ‘What are you going to do, get killed? Don’t you know that thing will kill you? Can't’ you just run away? Can’t we get away? Can't you just be safe?’

“Well do you have a better idea? You’re supposed to be in charge but you were freaking out back there and I had to make a decision before we burned to a crisp. And like you said, at least we’re alive!”

Catra recoiled. Melog's back arched and Catra felt her claws come out. She was ready to retort with another taunt or launch into a tirade when she caught Adora’s eyes, her blonde hair blowing over her mouth, and she took Adora in, just everything about her. Her hair was down, loose and wild, the way Catra loved it. Her eyes were fierce, and angry, and loving, her jaw was set. She was standing tall, unbowed, defiant. Adora was alive, and she was everything Catra wanted. It was just them and Melog, and a whole damn planet. And she loved this woman more than anything and...and this was her fault. Catra took a deep breath in. She had panicked, lost control, and endangered them both. She had to face it. 'Sometimes, we must work through the pain. We must feel all our shame and guilt and fear, and allow them to pass, because they are true, but they’re not all that is true.' That’s what Perfuma had told her. And Catra thought through all that now, and she let herself feel her guilt and anger at herself without trying to push it away or throw it back at Adora. She even did that stupid breathing exercise as Adora stared her down, ferocious and beautiful and maybe a little frightening. Melog's mane flattened and its color cooled. 

Catra sighed and looked up at Adora. “I’m sorry. I panicked back there. I could have gotten us killed.”

Adora’s gaze softened instantly. “Catra...you don’t need to apologize. Just tell me what’s going on. Tell me what’s been going on.”

Catra looked away from Adora. She looked up at the mountains and the snow and the forest, then back out to the purple-grey, surging sea. “The dragon, she talked to me or...put words into my head. It reminded me of...well you know, all that shit with…” Catra scratched the back of her neck. “..with him. The Dragon told me she was going to kill you. She told me how she was going to do it and how she was going to make me watch. And then she showed me. I saw her kill you, Adora. No, not just that, I saw her torture you, rip you apart, tear off pieces of you.. And I just…” Catra took a deep breath. She wasn’t going to start sobbing now. “I freaked out. Because that’s not the first time I’ve seen it. I’ve been dreaming about you getting killed for...I don’t know. It’s been a long time, now. And I can’t take it anymore. I can’t lose you.”

Tears were streaming down Adora’s face. "Catra, come here." Adora pulled her into an embrace. It felt good, especially in the cold. Catra buried her head in Adora's shoulder and sobbed.

"Catra I'm not going anywhere. Besides. I kicked Horde Prime's ass. You think I'm scared of a big lizard?"

Catra forced a weak laugh, but she didn't respond to that. She just held Adora closer, as they shivered together in the cold wind and blowing snow. 

"I just…" Catra sniffled and wiped her eyes with a free hand. She wanted to make a joke or mock Adora, or say anything other than what she was really thinking. She felt exposed, defenseless. Every instinct told her she needed her guard back up. "I guess I've gotten used to having you around. I don't know what I would do with myself if you weren't here to make fun of." Catra said as nonchalantly as she could. It wasn't a lie.

Adora snorted. "We both heard you back in the shuttle when you thought you were going to die, Catra. I promised I'd never let you forget it." Adora pulled back and gave Catra a wicked look. 

"That's no fair, Adora."

Adora's smile dropped. "You don't always have to play it cool with me, you know."

"Well I don't, always. But like I said, if I got mushy all the time you'd become intolerable." Adora chuckled. Catra half broke away from Adora and looked out over the savage landscape. "If you really want to talk more about feelings maybe we should do it when we're not freezing to death."

"Maybe some supplies survived reentry." Adora said, nodding at the rising smoke. "It's worth a shot," she said, without looking terribly hopeful.

"Yeah maybe at least one of those space blanket things. Let's move out."

"Is that an order, sir?"

"Ugh. I resign my commission. Besides my ship is on fire and in pieces so there’s not really much to command, is there?"

Adora shook her head. "Well you're not pawning this command job off on me like latrine duty when we were 9. If we do this, we do it together."

Catra smiled out of the corner of one mouth. "If you say so. Let's go, I guess."

Catra shivered again, and started walking up and off the beach, leading Adora and Melog. 

Walking onto the gravel bar, the smoking wreckage was even further than it had looked on the beach. Moving further inland was slow going as they stumbled across the rocks and climbed over bleached white tree trunks washed up by long past spring floods and slipped on the gathering snow. They got to the river soon enough - it was nearly milk-white with foam and some kind of silt, too fast to swim and too deep to ford. Fortunately the debris of their ship wasn’t on the far side of that.

They reached it after another several hours (it could have been three, or six) of slow progress. By now they were both shaking uncontrollably. Catra looked back at Adora - her lips were blue, and even her skin was a kind of purple-white. This wasn’t good. Catra was already having trouble thinking straight. 

“You know, Catra, I don’t think She-Ra can freeze to death.”

“Good point, well I guess warm yourself with the honor of Greyskull then,” Catra said.

Adora muttered the words and transformed. At once she embraced Catra with those strong, massive arms.

“Alright Adora, now’s not the time for a hug…”

“Just trying to warm you up. Does it help at all?”

“A little, probably would be better if I got out of this fucking space suit. But that’s my only clothes, and at least it keeps the wind off.”

“Well let’s look at the wreckage. Maybe your parka is here!”

Catra chuckled. If her parka survived, packing it would just be another thing for Adora to pat herself on the back for, she thought weakly. 

There was no such luck. Everything was burnt to a crisp. Everything except…

“Seriously? No space blanket, no clothes, just...this?” Catra held up the whip, which was barely singed, unlike the smoking detritus scattered around it.

“You should keep it. It might come in handy. Catra?”

“Uh, yeah?” 

“You’re not looking so great.”

“I’m fine, Adora. Just sleepy.”

Adora just shook her head, came over the Catra and held out a glowing hand, which warmed Catra to her core and cleared her head.

“Wow, I can’t believe that worked.”

“You just find new She Ra powers every week, don’t you? But I don’t suppose your glow-powers can keep us alive for five days.” 

“Probably not”, Adora said with a sigh. “For one thing I can’t stay transformed when I sleep.”

With her head clearer, Catra could take everything around her in better. Night was already falling - twilight seemed to take a long time here, though. They couldn't see the sun set behind the clouds but they could see the light fading. Catra hadn’t even finished looking around when she caught something with her nose. A stray scent in the air, creeping in between the smells of scorched metal and burnt clothes. Catra tried to listen, but she couldn’t hear anything over the roar of the river. Except...there. There was a growl, A grunt. Catra whirled around, looking across the frothing river in the gloom. Good thing she could see in twilight. There, a flash of movement, another...and there. 

“Oh damn,” Catra whispered. “Adora, don’t move too suddenly or anything, but get your sword ready. We’re being watched.” Melog’s mane flared from blue to purple and they growled.

Adroa shielded her hands with her body and flicked her wrist. The sword flashed into existence. Adora held it low, trying to look casual and only partly failing. “What’s watching us?”

“Something big. And judging by how it’s looking at us, I’d say it’s something predatory.” Catra studied the shape in the shadows. It was huge - broad shouldered and tall, taller than She-Ra even walking on all fours, or sixes, or however many legs it had. Catra couldn’t see it’s face well, or the ends of its paws, but she could guess at the kind of teeth and claws she’d find if she could.

“Adora, can you promise me something?”

“Uh, sure Catra.”

“If it comes to a fight on this planet, don’t hold back.”

“What?”

“I said don’t hold back. Just end it. I know how strong you are, and fast, and how sharp that fucking sword is. And I know better than anyone just how vulnerable you are when you’re holding back, trying not to kill someone, so don’t try not to” Catra was glad it was getting so dark. Adora wouldn’t see her wince when she said that last part. Catra hoped Adora couldn’t sense how many painful and guilty memories were compressed into those few words - ‘I know better than anyone just how vulnerable you are.’

Adora was silent, looking off into the night in the opposite direction from Catra. “Alright Catra. As long as something doesn’t talk.”

“What?”

“I don’t want to just go around decapitating the locals, do I? Killing sentient creatures? My people have done enough conquering for the next few millennia. Whatever I do here, I’m not going to do what they did .”

“Huh? Whatever. Well I don’t think this thing can talk. But it’s not doing anything. And it’s all the way across the river. Maybe…”

“Maybe it’s just watching us? Then we shouldn’t provoke it. The magical creatures on Etheria respond to stress and aggression.”

“Great, I’ll try my breathing exercises.” It actually wasn’t a totally stupid idea, at least to keep the thing from knowing that she’d seen it. Catra tried to relax, and could see Melog’s mane slacken a bit.

Then there was a roar from down the valley, creaking and breathy and hissing, and Catra saw a sickeningly familiar tendril of shadow wrap itself around the creature and...enter it. And then the creature sprung forward - impossibly fast, but not at her. It was pouncing on Adora.

“Adora, look out!” Adora swung around and Catra leaped herself, trying to catch the creature in mid-air before it could reach Adora.

And as Catra saw this great beast leap across the river and launched herself, she heard another sound behind her. A roar. There were two of them, one of them was behind her, and it was too late for Catra to turn around.

Catra didn’t have time to think about it before something swiped her out of the air and slammed her into the river-rocks below and tore into her suit and her flesh, raking her flank. Catra was pinned by some great weight, unable to even twist her head. She felt a rush of hot air on her neck and tried to twist aside, but she couldn’t move. Then she heard an echoing roar, and the weight was lifted off of her. Catra rolled onto her back and sprung to her feat, wincing at the agony burning up her side. Melog was crouching, staring up and snarling at the six-legged, shaggy-maned, sharp-toothed mega predator that towered above them. Catra heard a roar and Adora grunting. She forced herself not to turn, not to worry about Adora. She’d already made that mistake once. She deadened herself to the pain shooting from her hip to her shoulder, the same way she’d learned under Shadow Weaver’s hands. Compared to that it was easy to ignore the warm wetness pooling beneath her clothes and trickling down her leg. She forced herself to see her enemy clearly, and to see nothing else. 

The beast lunged for Melog, lowering its head and snapping. That’s when Catra saw it. There was her opening. Straight for the eyes. Catra leaped again, claws extended, reaching out, flying through the cold and and then...Got it. She felt, well, she’d started clawing eyes out when she was six. She knew what it felt like, She raked her claws, the beast screamed, and grasped at her, wildly, and she held onto its mane for dear life. It swiped at her, hit her and Catra felt something break in her chest. Melog was pouncing, clawing, snarling, biting somewhere on this creature, and still it was thrashing. Catra felt the whip at her side. She took it into her right hand, then snapped it around the creature’s neck, catching it with her left hand. She held onto its neck with her legs, and she tightened the whip and pulled with all her might, and kept pulling, until it stumbled and fell over. Still she kept it up, until the beast stopped twitching and she could no longer feel its pulse with her legs and she was about ready to pass out herself. She let the whip fall from her grasp and collapsed to one side of the animal. Now she felt the pain, and she nearly blacked out. She forced herself to keep her eyes open, and with even more effort she forced herself to look up. She saw She-Ra walking toward her, eyes blazing, sword in hand, covered in blood. Behind her was the other monster and, maybe 5 yards away, its head. 

“Damn you’re beautiful,” Catra said weakly.

Adora started, and her face fell. She rushed over to Catra. 

“I know it looks bad but you should see the other guy,” Catra said with what she hoped was a smile.

Adora knelt, and Catra felt She-Ra’s warmth envelop her for the third time in maybe five hours. She really needed to stop getting hurt, she thought as her head cleared and the pain dulled. Was she losing a step? Going soft? This was almost embarrassing.

“Catra, did you just call me beautiful? I’m covered in blood. And I just took that thing’s head off.”

“What can I say, it’s a good look for you. Also, I hate to admit it, but I guess that stupid whip came in handy.”

Somehow, Adora managed to keep her mouth shut and only nod and smile slightly. 

Catra looked around for Melog. They were okay, crouching nearby, looking anxiously at Catra.She turned back to Adora.

Adora looked down at her. “Well that was exciting. But we’re still freezing and now it’s night. I guess we could always climb into the corpses for warmth.”

Catra opened her mouth in incredulity. “Or we could just use the burning wreckage to set some of this dry driftwood on fire and not stuff ourselves into something’s dead body.”

Adora thought for a moment. “Yeah your idea’s much better.”

Adora helped Catra up so they could gather wood, and Catra didn’t even complain.

“Seriously Adora, crawl into the carcasses for warmth? That's your first idea? What the fuck.”


	6. The People Without a Code

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Catra and Adora meet the locals

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soundtrack: Smoulder - Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring
> 
> ... seriously maybe the best She-Ra metal album.

Catra moved stiffly behind Adora as they gathered firewood, but at least she was still cracking wise. She ribbed Adora for her grisly survival plan for several minutes, and Adora played along, adding in gory details just to make everything more ridiculous. While Catra picked out pieces of driftwood Adora shone the light of her sword around the snow-covered river rocks all around them, looking for anything from the wreckage. There! That looked like fabric. Adora triumphantly pulled out a ripped open sleeping bag, and held it up like she’d just found three sausage links stuck together in a breakfast buffet. 

“Hey look, it almost looks like it could keep us warm.”

“It’s better than nothing. Also better than monster guts. Definitely better than monster guts.”

Adora chuckled. Catra was obviously on edge, she didn’t normally milk old material like this so long - she wasn’t Glimmer, who would take a joke and beat it until it stopped twitching. Or Adora herself, she had to admit. 

Adora didn’t find much else - their clothes and food had all burned up. But sticking out of the snow, Adora did see a single cylinder, and she nearly yelped for joy - there was her map case. In it would be her map of this exact valley, drawn from their scans as they approached the planet. Adora looked over her shoulder to make sure Catra wasn’t watching, and just about danced as she picked it up.

In another few minutes (time was tricky here) they returned to pile their firewood. Adora threw the sleeping bag on the softest-looking patch of ground she could find, in the lee of a huge log that would hopefully keep the wind off. Catra took care of building the fire, and Adora took a second look at the animals that had attacked them. The animals they’d killed. They were huge - six legs, sharp claws at the ends of all of them, blunt snouts, vicious fangs, thick grizzled-gray fur. At least it looked gray, in the dark it was hard to tell. Standing they would have been maybe 9 feet tall at the shoulders and three times as long. Seeing them dead was still...it was sad. Even dead, Adora could still feel the magic seeping out of them, like the boars of the Whispering Woods. They were probably beautiful when they were alive - Adora loved huge animals, especially the dangerous, predatory ones. They reminded her of herself, in a weird way. She had a sad, silly thought, that maybe if these two hunted as a pair then maybe they were mates. Not unlike her and Catra. And what had happened felt strange. These animals hadn’t attacked until they’d heard that roar, to start with. This whole planet was strange. The magic was wild, Adora could sense it but also...it wasn’t running free. She couldn’t describe it. It was like the difference between the Whispering Woods and Plumeria. Glimmer would know better than her and Micah definitely would. But they weren’t here.

Adora shook her head. She’d have time to think about this later, and time to feel bad about killing these beautiful, wild creatures. But tonight, she was hungry, and her girlfriend was cold. She had work to do. Adora gave a weak ‘sorry’ to the creature and set to work with her sword - skinning, gutting and cutting off some meat for them to eat right now.

By the time she was done Catra was already basking in the warmth of a roaring bonfire and the snow was melting and steaming all around it, even as it fell thicker and thicker from the sky. Adora joined Catra with her handiwork - several hunks of purplish meat, and enough shaggy hide to cushion them when they slept and protect them from the cold of the ground. Adora speared the meat on sticks and set it by the fire, and set out their bedding on top of the hide.

“Where’d you get so good at skinning and butchering stuff, Adora? It’s been years since we did survival training.”

“Hey I aced that course.”

“That course was bullshit.”

“Yeah I figured that out in the Crimson Wastes.”

“So where did you learn to do all that?”

“Well, speaking of the Crimson Wastes, Huntara taught me.”

Catra sniffed. “Oh. Right. Her.” Adora suppressed a grin. Occasionally Catra’s jealousy was annoying, but most of the time it was...kind of flattering all around. Catra both cared enough to be jealous, and also assumed that Adora was so irresistible that other women were always after her. Adora admired this other Adora that seemed to live in Catra’s mind, the ladykiller who’d just trip over herself and land face first in some gorgeous woman’s lap. Still, there was a particular edge in Catra’s voice when Huntara came up that Adora didn’t like. Oh well.

Adora shrank back to her normal size and struipped off the ragged, sodden remains of her space suit, then dove under the scrap of sleeping bag, shivering.

“Join me?” Adora asked with a smile. 

“Sure, I’d love to get out of this thing. I can’t even tell what’s seawater or melted snow or my own blood in here anymore. Anyway, it’s wet and it smells.” Catra tore the rags off of herself and slid under the sleeping bag with Adora.

“The fur mattress is a nice touch.”

“I didn’t scrape the skin so good on the other side, so we’ve probably got 12 hours before it starts smelling.” Adora said with a grin.

Catra chuckled. “Thanks for the warning.”

Adora wrapped her arms around Catra. She always enjoyed how they fit together - even when she wasn’t She Ra, wrapping herself around Catra’s taut, lithe limbs and slender frame made her feel big and strong. Both Adora and Catra were sticky and matted with blood and salt and sweat, just like Catra had said. Yet as far as Adora was concerned her partner had never felt so wonderful. Lying in Adora’s arms, Catra’s shivers were finally dying down, replaced by just the hint of a purr.

“Hey Catra. How are you? This has been...it’s been a day.”

“A pretty shitty day, you mean?”

“I dunno, any day that ends with me and you curled up in front of a fire can’t be all bad, can it?”

“You’re a sap.”

“I’m your sap, Catra. But really, how are you? You were…” Adora struggled to find the words. She didn’t want to ruin the mood by saying ‘you acted like an idiot’ but Catra had nearly gotten herself killed, again. Like she had fighting the space pirates, or before with those creepy Prime cultists. Adora had thought she was just being competitive but with those dreams… “...I can’t tell if you were trying to steal my glory or trying to, I dunno, protect me.”

Catra sighed. “You know how much I want to steal your thunder.” Catra said, without conviction.

“Hey, I love it when you get all competitive, it’s hot.”

“Yeah, well it’s not all foreplay, it keeps me on my toes too. Don’t tell anyone I said that.”

“I’m pretty sure Glimmer assumes it’s all just a weird sex thing.” Adora said with a chuckle. “But was that really all that was going on here? I know you’re worried about me.”

Catra sighed.” Yeah. I am. I have been, Adora. You can keep telling me that you’ll be fine, and that you’re not trying to get yourself killed but...sometimes it’s hard to believe. You spent a long time trying to get killed. I know, I was the one trying to kill you for a lot of it. And Scorpia’s filled me in on what you were like when I was gone. You know, when I was...off planet. She was worried about you. They all were.”

“Sorry Catra. All I can say is that I really, really don’t want to die. Because then I’d lose you. I’m done sacrificing myself to save the world.”

Adora heard a sniffle. Catra was turned away from her, but Adora could imagine her fighting back tears. “Thanks Adora. I guess it helps.”

“I mean, the universe is a nice place and all but I’m not sure saving it is worth never getting laid again. So next time it needs saving I’d better figure out a way to save it and live. I’m sure I can with your help. Like you did before,” Adora said in a more flirtatious tone of voice, deliberately letting a hand roam over Catra’s body.

Catra chuckled.

“But I’m also trying to be serious. Catra, you’ve got me worried. Especially on this planet.”

“You mean this planet that is trying to kill us?”

“Yes, this planet that is trying to kill us.”

“Well now we’re both worried about the other one getting killed. So I guess we’re even.”

“Well can you promise me something?”

“I can try.”

“Take care of yourself, first. Survive. You’re good at it. Don’t go...risking your life for me. I promise I won’t try and sacrifice myself, you just...live. Keep on living, Catra. I feel like both of us are going to have to try our damndest to survive this and I can’t do this without you. We can have each other’s backs, I know saving each other is what we do, even if it’s a stupid idea. But just don’t...don’t dive in front of any monsters for me.”

“Okay, Adora, I’ll do my best.”

They lay in silence for a while, holding each other, watching the fire and the snow fall on them and all around them. Catra got up every little while to stoke the fire, and Adora turned the meat, then tore into it when it was finally done cooking, transforming into She Ra in case it was poisonous (Adora had no idea if that would work, but she might as well be safe). Catra started eating after a few minutes, then ribbed her cooking technique, and Adora offered to finish Catra’s piece if she hated it so much. Then they talked about their predicament. They would miss their check-in in five days, it would take a full day for any rescue party to reach them, and then their rescuers would hopefully receive the telemetry from the capsule Adora had jettisoned before they crashed and then they would know what had happened. So it would be a week until anyone showed up to rescue them. Only Adora was worried about what would happen when they did approach the planet. If that dragon could take down an entire First One’s warfleet, Darla didn’t stand a chance, especially without Melog. The prudent thing to do would be to stay at a distance and plan a stealthy rescue somehow. That was the protocol - if team members were lost to hostile and overwhelming force, wait for reinforcements, do not engage alone in their unarmed spaceship. If Bow and Glimmer followed the protocol, then they’d stay safe on the edge of the nebula and not charge in headlong. But Glimmer would be in command in Adora’s absence, and Catra for one had no confidence in ‘Sparkles’’ prudence or patience. Glimmer was a wildcard, without a doubt. Catra suggested if they could find the Cephalopodians, which they couldn’t, then they could sneak in with Melog and get a transmission out. Adora didn’t tell Catra what she was really planning. Telling her girlfriend ‘I feel like I need to confront that dragon’ would just start a fight before bed, and they both needed the rest. So Adora stayed quiet and thanked the stars that her infamously wide-open face was concealed by darkness.

Catra fell asleep before Adora, leaving Adora to tend the fire and watch for monsters, dragons or angry aliens. Melog could handle standing watch, but they didn’t have thumbs, and Adora wanted to keep Catra warm with a roaring fire. But it wasn’t all just waiting. The snow stopped for a little. Looking up, Adora could see the strangest sky through a break in the clouds - off-black and purple from the nebula, completely overwhelmed by a half dozen brilliant blue-white stars, it was like no other night sky Adora had ever seen. Of course, she’d only been seeing stars for 18 months. Sitting there, feeling her beloved’s warmth curled around her, watching the flames dance, Adora couldn’t help but smile. She was on watch, guarding against the dangers of the night, tending the fire, and all the while feeling the old weight of responsibility settling on her as she worried about Bow and Glimmer and the Cephalopodians. And yet she wasn't worried about herself, or Catra, and right now all those others, those responsibilities, seemed so far away. And so in another part of her she felt...relaxed. Free. She was looking forward to tomorrow, strangely, and for tonight, she had everything she needed. Adora put a final, big load of logs on the fire and felt her eyelids start weighing downwards. Adora took her dagger out of her boot and put it under the mass of extra fur that served as her pillow, then lay her head down and felt the comforting hint of hardness beneath her. She looked up at Melog, whose eyes weren’t so much as blinking.

“You got this for us, buddy? Just yowl if something is trying to eat us.” And with that, Adora drifted off into the soundest sleep she’d had in a month.

Adora was awoken by Melog’s sharp cry. She was on her feet and out of bed at once, scattering the snow that had settled on her during the night. She didn’t even shout before she started transforming - she just thought of Catra defenseless next to her and she felt her eyes glow and her legs lengthen and her arms bulge. She wheeled around to face the coming threat. She pulled out the dagger from under her pillow and put it into She-Ra’s boot. Catra rolled sleepily out of their bedroll and into a ready crouch.

There, on the far side of the nearer carcass was a group of a dozen or more large, six-limbed aliens carrying bronze-headed axes and spears and wearing what looked like furs, just visible in the grey light of a cloudy doawn. They were furry...no… they were feathered. They had many-colored plumes on their heads of various colors and sizes, and short, less vibrant short feathery hair on their bodies and limbs. Adora didn’t have much time to admire them, though, because as soon as they saw her stand they readied their weapons.

“Well you’re the diplomatic genius, Catra. Any ideas?”

“Me? I just find new ways to tell people they’re stupid and call them on their bullshit. Bow’s the one who’s good at making nice and Sparkles is good at the fancy talk.”

“And I’m the one who cuts battlecruisers in half for everyone’s amusement. Sure you don’t have any ideas?”

“Well nomads and shit are really into hospitality. Maybe we could say we’re travelers who need shelter and food.”

“Worth a shot. You want to do this or…”

“Oh for fuck’s sake, Adora.” Catra walked out a couple of steps on the snowy rocks, careful not to slip. “Greetings! We are travellers from uh, distant lands. We’re um, new to these shores and we ask...uh, succor?” Catra dropped her voice and spoke out of the side of her mouth. “...Is that the word?” 

“I think so?” Adora once again wondered how their universal translators worked, but only for a second. Mostly she was glad they did.

The aliens...no, the local inhabitants, the strangers… looked at each other and whispered a conversation that soon ounded like it was getting heated. The biggest one finally shook her head and turned to Catra and Adora.

“You have already slain the sacred beasts of our tribe and sullied this valley with your footsteps. You are not travellers, you are invaders, and we will not succor you. Nor will we let you pass.”

“Oh come on!” Adora yelled in frustration. “These animals attacked us! We were defending ourselves, can’t you at least let us leave?” 

The strangers looked at each other, shook their heads, and started inching toward Catra and Adora. 

“Alright Catra, bar fight rules. Let’s not kill anyone.”

“Seriously? They have axes and spears!”

“Seriously. Closed fists, no claws, no blades, and most importantly….

“Yeah, yeah, eyes stay intact, in their sockets, un-gouged. I know. Please don’t die, Adora.”

“Not planning to.”

The strangers charged. Melog ran up to Catra, who disappeared, to some consternation but no panic from their attackers. Meanwhile She-Ra shook her head and ran right for the biggest of the strangers, fists swinging. The stranger ducked Adora’s first punch and followed up with two of her own. Adora barely dodged one and blocked the other with an open hand, then grabbed the other’s arm and threw her while kicking her legs out from under her. Another stranger swung for Adora’s head with an axe and she parried it with a shield she summoned at the last moment, then she ran under the blow and head-butted her attacker. Catra blinked back into view behind the others with Melog roaring, cracking her whip and ensnaring weapons and arms, knocking her attackers flat on the snow and stones. She was lithe and lethal, and Adora nearly took a war club to the head staring at the way her girlfriend moved. Then in an instant she was gone again, cackling all the while. Three more attackers came at Adora, surrounding her. She charged at one with her shield raised, kicking their legs out from under them and elbowing them down as they passed, then turning and cracking the next in the jaw with her shield.

It went on like this, but Catra and Adora hadn’t joined Glimmer in barroom brawls in dives across the universe for nothing. They were all headbutts, sharp elbows, knees, jabs, uppercuts, grapples, arm-bars, boldly slams and throws. Even armed their opponents were no match for two-thirds of the undefeated bar fight champions of the cosmos. Pretty soon the fight was just Adora and Catra decking their opponents as they staggered to their feet and foolishly charged again, and Adora could finally admire just how gracefully Catra cracked that whip and threw her opponents. Adora took her eyes off her girlfriend and turned back to the strangers.

“Alright, now can we talk!?” Adora yelled at the groaning mass around them. “I don’t want to hurt you. More. Uh..any more than I have. Can we just...start over?”

One of the strangers struggled to prop herself up.

“We can talk. What do you want?”

“We want you not to kill us.”

“And hospitality would be nice, too, while you’re at it.” 

The stranger nodded and turned back to her companions, the ones who were still conscious. They struggled up and started talking amongst themselves.

Adora turned back to Catra. “You really think they’re going to treat us like guests after we beat them up?”

“After we beat them up, do they have a choice? This is like the Crimson Wastes, Adora. And you’re already doing pretty good - you just punched out the biggest gal here. Classic opening move.”

“I’m not here to conquer anyone, Catra. I mean it.”

“Who said anything about conquering this dump? Just show ‘em who’s boss. You’re doing fine, Adora. You’re kind of good at this, for such a goody-goody.”

The stranger coughed and Catra and Adora turned. “You may pass through our lands, we will not attack you again. But you have not treated us as guests treat their hosts, so while we shall not hinder you, we will not help you either. We have our own wounds to tend to now.”

“I can help with that. I’m kind of great at healing people, actually. Want me to give it a try? Here, hold out your head and I can fix that black eye.” Adora smiled as she spoke. She wasn’t lying, she was good at healing people, she knew how strong her powers were. She just had no idea if they’d accept her offer. She tried to swallow down the strange feeling that she wasn’t the first Eternian to land on this planet and start swinging her fists, or worse.

The stranger looked up at She-Ra and gave an odd, skeptical smirk. Then she shrugged and nodded, and Adora laid a hand amidst the stranger’s plumes. Adora’s hand and the stranger’s head glowed, and then the stranger straightened and looked at Adora, and smiled. The others looked at Adora with odd expressions, then shared glances amongst themselves. They seemed impressed, but not awed, just like they had been annoyed but not afraid when Catra disappeared. These people knew magic. Seeing other people acknowledge her powers but not stand in awe of them felt...different. Adora liked it. Adora felt herself relax in spite of everything as she went among them, healing many bruises and two broken bones (“Sorry!”) and countless lacerations from Catra’s whip. The last to be healed was the big woman who had attacked Adora first. She woke, saw her companions standing around Adora and not attacking her, and gave a kind of exasperated sigh and shook her head.

Finally everyone was whole and healthy. Catra and Adora stood in front of the strangers with Melog beside them.

“Can we do this again? I am Adora of...Etheria, and this is Catra, of Etheria.” 

“And Melog of Krytis!” Catra chimed in

“We are travellers from far away. We ask for your hospitality. We mean you no harm. And I hope, if we have harmed you, that I’ve been able to, kinda make that better.” Adora trailed off. Glimmer was so much better at this stuff.

The strangers nodded to each other. The big woman didn’t speak this time - instead it was the first stranger Adora had healed.

“We welcome you, travellers, as our guests. We see you have a fire. We will join you there. You have slain two Grayyaghi - in your lands, do you know how to skin them? Have you performed the ceremonies for their spirits? We will help you if these customs are strange to you, since you are our guests. Since you have conquered such beasts, and since you are out guests, we must rest and have a feast.”

“Uh,That’s really wonderful. We do not know much of your lands or about the...Grayyaghi, so we would be happy if you helped. Thanks um...”

“I am Elix, and our band are the Illithi.”

“What do you call your speci...er, your people. Everyone who looks like you.” Catra asked.

They looked at each other. This was a strange question. “We are Suverii. And you are...Etherii? But you do not look like each other.”

“Oh, man, that’s complicated. But yes. We’re called Etherians.” Kinda. Adora didn’t want to get into her own origins with them. 

“Then welcome, Adora and Catra of Etheria, and Melog of Krytis. Welcome to the Valley of the Illithi.”

Catra and Adora smiled. Catra stepped forward. “Thank you for having us.” And then she shivered - she was not wearing anything more than she’d worn to bed, while at least Adora was both dressed in her white leggings and immune to the cold.

“Are you without clothing? Very well, our males will take the Grayagghi hide and make you clothing. Come, let us set their spirits to rest.”

Adora and Catra each went to the Grayaggh they had killed and repeated the warrior’s words as she said a brief prayer for its spirit. Other Illithi were arriving now - smaller, with more brilliant plumes, and others, medium-sized and less spectacular, with children in their arms. “The males and the nurses are here. Come, let us sit by your fire and talk while they tend to the hides. It is not work fitting for warriors - for women.”

Elix went over to talk to some Illithi, and other warriors threw fur cloaks over Adora and Catra. Catra looked at Adora.

"Are we seriously just going to trust them?" She asked in a low voice.

"Catra we just beat them up in three seconds. I don't think they'll try it again. And if they do, well I guess then your claws can come out. Besides, what does Melog think? And how do they smell?"

Catra sniffed. "Pretty relaxed, actually, and Melog likes them." Catra shrugged. "Maybe they are on the level."

"See? Anyway I could use a feast."

Elix finished talking to the others, walked up to them and gave them a smile. “Now you must tell the story of how two naked travellers killed two Grayagghi. That sounds like a tale!”

The other warriors nodded. Catra and Adora looked at each other.

“There’s...not too much to tell,” Adora began. Catra shook her head.

“Now’s not the time to be modest, my love. You’re the one who beheaded that Grayaggh with, what was it, a single stroke of your sword?”

“Well all it takes is one when you’re good, Catra.” Adora said with a smile. “And besides, how did you kill that other one?”

“Oh, I leapt up on its head, took out its eyes and strangled it with this.” Catra held out the whip.

All of this got the attention of the Illithi. They insisted on seeing Adora’s sword, since they’d only seen her unarmed, and insisted that Catra demonstrate more of her prowess with a whip. Catra and Adora were happy enough to oblige - Adora threw a rock up, summoned her sword in a flash, and split the stone before it hit the ground. Catra arched an eyebrow, threw a spruce-cone into the air, and took it out of the air with a single crack of her whip. Once they’d nodded appreciatively at their guests’ martial abilities, the Illithi started showing off themselves - throwing axes and spears, egging each other on until Catra and Adora had joined in on the whistling and whooping with the rest. Next up, they asked to see some demonstration of Adora’s strength, since she was even bigger than they were. So she tossed a boulder over her shoulder and into the river, 500 yards away. Any warriors who had thought to demonstrate their own strength wisely decided to concede the point to Adora. Adora then shrunk back to her normal size, to even more amusement from the Illithi. Nothing awed them, some things impressed them, and many things amused them, it seemed. Catra shook her head, called Adora an idiot, and kissed her on the cheek as Adora nestled beside her under her own fur cloak. The Illithi whistled and Catra whispered into Adora’s ears.

“Not bad for some people who were trying to kill us an hour ago, Adora.”

“Hey this is all your idea.”

“Is not!”

Adora just smirked.

The warriors showed some of their own magic - mastering the snow as it fell, causing flowers to bloom in the midst of winter, forming shapes in the fire. It was a lot like what she’d seen from the Princesses back on Etheria. Adora watched with open wonder, but at the same time another part of her was wondering how much time was passing. How much closer were they to Glimmer and Bow warping into the system and into danger? Adora didn’t do sessions with Perfuma, but Catra had convinced her to see this one psychic sentient slime mould once. One thing they’d told her was to focus on what you could do, not what you wished you could do. Accept all things not in your power and then change everything that was in your power. Adora tried to do that now - they needed to wait for new clothes, at least, and they needed food and whatever other help the Illithi could give them. Four years ago Adora would have charged off into the woods naked anyway, but whatever Catra said she was smarter than that now. She might as well enjoy this. And she already felt a part of her doing just that. She had wanted an adventure, and when she wasn’t worried about Glimmer and Bow she was enjoying nearly all of this.

Soon enough the meal was served by the medium-sized Suverii - roast Grayagghi, but better prepared than Adora’s half-scorched, half raw hunks of flesh from last night. Apparently the trick was wrapping the lean meat in fat before you roasted it. They also ate what they assumed were the Grayagghi’s hearts, but it was hard to tell. They were actually pretty delicious. After the meal they passed around a skin full of what could only be booze. Adora drank a sip and passed it along - there was no need for her sillier alter-ego to make an appearance right now. 

“Man it’s still morning! I like your style!” Catra crowed, also drinking only a sip. No doubt Catra was thinking how no one needed to deal with a sad drunk, either.

Adora turned back to Elix. She chose her words carefully, trying to sound like Glimmer. “We have told you...um... something of ourselves, what about you? What is...what is the story of your people? How did you come here? Have you always lived here?”

“This is a deep question. Some among the Illithi have always lived here. But our band are not all kin. None of our people, the free people, are kin to the rest. We are not bound by our lineage or our ancestors, but by how we live.”

“And how is that?” Catra asked, ears perking up.

“Freely! Long ago the Illithi and other Free People refused to bow to Telika and the priestesses that serve her. Nor do we bow to their queens and nobles and merchants. We defy all the ones who rule the people of the cities - the People of the Code. Many here once lived among them in their cities, or on their farms, or our mothers did, like my mother did. But we fled, or escaped. We rejected the Code of Telika. We do not give her tribute or sacrifices. We do not honor her rites or her priestesses. We live without Telika and the other gods, just as we live without their laws.”

“You’re not some isolated tribe. You’re outcasts. Outlaws.” Catra said with a gleam of recognition.

“Those are among the things they call us. They also call us barbarians, heathens, apostates, heretics. Many of us take their names with pride. I am proud to be a barbarian, for instance,” Elix said with a smile. Catra and Adora smiled back.

“Who is Telika?”

This was the first question that Catra or Adora had asked that shocked the Illithi, who were mostly unflappable. They shared a few strange glances, and then Elix responded in a whisper that was nearly drowned out by the sound of the fire and the river. “She is the last god. The god who lives. The great dragon who lives in the Dead City.”

“Oh. Her.” Catra said. “Yeah I think we know her.”

Adora looked away. She’d need to ask more about that later. “So these are the lands of your tribe?”

“We should think so! But the People of The Code, the city people would say that this is the Sacred Valley of Telika. This is the valley through which their Road of Queens passes, after all.”

“The Road of Queens?”

“Perhaps 500 paces into those woods. It is an ancient road, said to be laid down by Telika’s ancient foes, those who came from beyond the stars.” Adora felt herself start. That could be only one group of people. “They laid it as a path to their city. Now it is the road to Telika’s temple at the city’s gate...and to the city itself, if you dared to set foot there.”

Catra glared at Adora. Damnit, her face had betrayed her again. 

Catra changed the subject once more, as abruptly as possible.

“So there were people who came from beyond the stars?”

“That is what the priestesses tell. Many among us think that these are just more of their lies. I suppose it might be true - someone built that road, which snow does not lie on, and which glows with runes. Someone built the city, though no one alive has seen it. But I will not worship and sacrifice to a dragon because she freed our planet thirty generations ago. Why honor a liberator who would have you as her slave?”

Catra and Adora asked more questions of Elix and the others. Some males came and measured them while they talked, and discussed how to make clothes for them amongst themselves - they found having four limbs and no feathers strange, but cloaks would fit the same and they thought they could do something about Adora's bare skin and Catra's too thin fine fuzz of fur. They’d need something to keep their limbs warm, since Catra’s fur was so fine and short and Adora’s skin was bare except for her soft, billowy 'plumes' on her head.

After the males left, Catra and Adora asked as delicately as they could about the Suverii gender, and Elix answered as bluntly as she could.

"We are the warriors." Elix began.

"Your sex or gender identity is...warrior, got it." Catra replied.

"Perhaps it is not so with you. But we are female, and we are warriors. We carry the seed of life. The males, with their beautiful plumes, we lay with them and they ah...water the seed of life. I am sorry, I do not have better words." Elix smiled. "Normally I only have to explain this to children, so I only have small words." Elix chuckled. "Then we lie with the nurses, and they take the watered and growing seed. It grows into a Suveri within them. And they feed and nourish the child after they are born. Is it not so with you?"

Catra and Adora looked at each other. "Ah, not exactly. We have men, and women", Adora began.

"And some people are neither or both or something else." Catra finished while Adora nodded.

"And normally we only need two to have a baby. Sometimes it's a man and a woman, sometimes it's two men, sometimes two women. Sometimes there is magic involved. But normally there's only two parents." Adora felt herself flush. Talking about people having kids around Catra made her stomach flutter and twitch, even though it wasn't like she was talking about them having kids. 

"I dunno, I feel like Lonnie's kids are gonna have a mom and two dads." Catra added with a smile.

"But the important thing is, we only need two."

"You come from strange lands," Elix said, shaking her head, smiling and chuckling.

"So uh, if you warriors and the nurses are both female, how does that work? Like, what's the difference?" Catra asked.

"All girl children are just...girls. They are not warriors or nurses. Then, when she comes of age, the girl will either become a warrior or a nurse. She chooses her path, and we help her to become what she is. But that may change later as well. Many warriors become nurses, some nurses become warriors."

Adora looked between Elix and one of the nurses. Elix was muscular and lean. The nurse seemed smaller and was definitely softer and rounder. So when they changed, it seemed to be a physical change, and not just a social one? It felt rude to ask. And judging by the number of warriors in even this small band who had different size plumes or smaller statures, not everyone called a ‘male’ at their birth was really a male as far as the Illithi were concerned. Which was like Etheria or most planets, really. 

"So it's like this for all the Suverii?"

"Our bodies are no different from any others, though the settled folk are less well fed. But they do not have any choice in who they become. My mother told me that the eldest daughter always became a warrior, only for them it is not always a warrior-many among them just...labor, or count money - and all her younger sisters are to be nurses. She is not given a choice. Your destiny is chosen for you at your birth, in all things."

The Illithi spoke more about the customs of the Settled People with bewildered and somewhat outraged contempt. It sounded stifling - everything about the settled peoples did. They have money, and laws, but also slavery, a nobility, royalty, castes and a priesthood that held everything together, all dedicated to Telika, their god. 

Now the males were done skinning the Grayagghi, most of them and the Nurses joined the warriors, children in tow, and soon Elix and all the other warriors were just as likely to coo over a baby or caress a male or a nurse as they were to arm-wrestle each other or try to beat each other at throwing spears (or for the matter, caress one another). Seeing everyone starting to curl up together, Catra and Adora instinctively nestled closer to each other.

“So you two are lovers?” Elix asked Catra and Adora.

They looked at each other, and burst out laughing because there was nothing else to do. 

Before Catra could sputter out some lame evasion Adora took Catra’s hand.

“Yeah we are.” 

“How long have you been with each other?” Another warrior asked. 

“I dunno, who’s counting?” Catra said with a smile.

“We have been friends since we were children. But…” Adora looked nervously at Catra. She wanted to say this part. But she knew how Catra felt about it. ‘Can I say it?’ Adora mouthed at her.

‘Fine, Adora’. Catra half-whispered back.

“We’ve also been foes. We’ve fought...a lot. Catra was my most cunning and dangerous enemy for three years.” Adora turned to Catra with a loving, admiring expression.

This got the attention of nearly everyone. Catra looked half embarrassed and half interested, but she played along. “Adora wasn’t quite so cunning, probably, but she was definitely my strongest foe.”

“Now this sounds like a tale!” Elix said with a smile, inviting Adora to continue. The skin was passed around again. 

So Adora told their story. Adora didn’t tell things exactly as they happened. She didn’t lie, but she left out quite a bit - the details of Etherian politics, but also some of Catra’s worse actions, some of the more personal hurts they’d inflicted on each other. She left in the epic battles, though, and Catra provided her own retellings at times, adding color to Adora’s simple descriptions, adding details, making jokes. Adora included the important parts, like the forces turning her and Catra against each other - Hordak, Light Hope, Shadow Weaver - and even said a bit about the Sword and how it was designed to control her and how she’d broken it and rejected her fate. Adora definitely included her abiding love for Catra, and Catra told quite a bit about her love for Adora, so it was an epic tale of fighting and flirting and star crossed romance. It was fantastical, and more than a little idealized, but even as she told it Adora felt that it was truer than the dry recitations of facts and grand speeches about the power of hope she had given to so many delegations. The important things - her love for Catra, her search for herself and what she wanted - that was there. It was hard to tell the story of Prime without talking about people from beyond the stars, so why not - Adora included that too. How they’d been reunited when things seemed darkest, how they’d saved each other. By the time they were done Catra had pinned Adora with the reenactment of their first kiss and everyone sat spellbound by Catra and Adora’s tale, even as the snow had fallen thick all around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I am trying to do fantasy barbarians without falling into the noble savage trope, so I decided to make them an outcaste or maroon community.


	7. Tales of the Barbarian Queens

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and Catra make friends and reflect on their past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soundtrack: Lunar Shadow - The Smokeless Fire

Catra looked on at Adora as she told the story of their life together. It was weird. There were good memories even in the bad old days, Catra supposed, but so much of their life until a year ago was so raw and painful and so immediate that she still hated thinking about a lot of it most of the time. It wasn’t like she and Adora were like normal couples - they couldn’t tell a cute story like ‘remember when I nearly took your head off?’ on a date night. Though once that had actually happened on a double date with Glimmer and Bow and it -should- have been hilarious. Maybe it would be some day. But for now, the wounds were barely scabbed, and Catra felt them sting every time her thoughts brushed against them.

It was all like that. Their anniversary was the anniversary of Adora nearly dying and then killing the god-emperor of the known universe, and that was a happy day by their standards. All these memories were twisted together with each other, with good and bad, with Catra's love of Adora and disgust with herself - everything was fucked up. Some things - Angella, the portal, betraying Adora, betraying Scorpia and Entrapta and even Hordak - some things were too painful to ever think about too hard, and the idea of really reliving them made Catra want to run screaming into the cold. Fortunately Adora didn't bring those up, but still, Catra was on edge at first. Catra was not looking forward to this story as Adora started, and it was hard to focus on Melog and her breathing and not dig her claws into the ground. If Catra herself talked about the bad old days, she tried to pass it off as a joke. ‘Remember when I was evil? Yeah, that was hilarious.’ Other people even laughed along, but Catra secretly didn’t think it was very funny.

But hearing Adora tell it, it wasn’t so bad. Sure, her girlfriend left out all worst things Catra had done, but more than that Adora was telling a story about how much they loved each other. How much they always had. As Adora told it, their most vicious battles were almost some fucked-up kind of flirting, and any fight was as likely to end in a make-out session as it was in their grisly deaths. And was Adora wrong? It’s not that Catra hadn’t noticed even back then how fighting Adora always felt different, more exciting, how it made her feel more alive. How she'd looked forward to it, and not just because she had convinced herself she wanted to hurt Adora. Some days the chance to see Adora, to fight her, had been the only thing that got Catra out of bed. Some days it was the only thing worth doing in the grey-green misery of the Fright Zone. Hearing Adora recount some of their most epic fights with love in her eyes and with her arm wrapped around Catra, Catra couldn’t help but see the whole sorry story the way Adora did, at least a bit. “I never hated you,” Adora had said. That idiot really meant it. Catra could at least try not hating herself. She’d been trying. It was easier with Adora stroking her and beaming down at her and Melog curled up beside her. 

What really dragged Catra into the story, though, was that Adora kept getting it wrong. Oh the facts were right. But the excitement, the drama or whatever, that was missing. Adora started telling the story of their epic, fucked-up romance like she was giving an after action report. Plus, Adora always missed how hilarious a lot of this shit was. So of course Catra had to add some color, some excitement and some humor, just to keep the Suverii entertained. Soon even Adora took the hint, her storytelling rose to the challenge and she and Catra were sparring with each other with their words as they told everyone about how they’d once fought with sword and claws. At some point Catra started actually enjoying herself. Catra and Adora really got into it once they told the story of how they were reunited - Adora was positively beaming through it all and Catra couldn’t help but grin along through their adventures in space and back on Etheria, especially since Adora left out the worst parts. With Adora there telling the story she didn't have flashbacks of Horde Prime or mind control. She could just remember what it was like opening her eyes and looking up at Adora after she had dragged Catra back from death. She could remember seeing Adora transform into the real She-Ra, the Adora She-Ra, and fully admitting to herself that she'd never stopped loving this woman. She could remember the thrill and power of fighting by Adora's side and not against her, and the creeping warmth of realizing that Glimmer and Bow were her friends too. The pride of finding Melog and being chosen by them, the shocking thrill of helping people, even saving them.

So that's how it went. Adora boasted, Catra joked and jibed and rolled her eyes, and they both wrapped their arms around each other and made eyes at the other. It ended with the big damn kiss that saved the universe, and Catra was impatient enough with Adora’s explanation that she just reenacted it right there for everyone. There were cheers and applause. Normally Catra would be embarrassed, but she was never going to see any of these people again, and it was fun, and Adora kissed her back passionately enough to take Catra’s breath away.

The whole production had taken over two hours, and at the end of it the group kind of broke up to talk amongst themselves and tend to the next phases of the meal, finish sewing the clothes they were making for their guests, wrangle children and handle other...Illithi business, whatever that was. Catra and Adora were left on their own. Catra wrapped herself in the oversized fur cloak they’d leant her and waded through the snow over to the river. She needed to be alone, just for a little while, at least she told herself that. The Illithi were fun, but they were still -people-, and new ones at that. That made them exhausting. Melog padded after her, but Adora stayed by the fire, leaving Catra and Melog alone with her thoughts.

Catra brought herself back form her happier memories. Back to the present, here and now, as messed up as this was. What the fuck, Catra thought, shaking her head. Even by her standards, the past day was too damn much. It was all crazy, and stupid, and maybe infuriating. The crash, the long walk overland, the battle with two alien megapredators, the brawl with the Illithi and now there was a feast for some reason? Meanwhile somewhere there was a dragon that wanted her girlfriend dead and that same dragon apparently ruled this stupid planet as a god. None of this surprised her, really. Any two of these things would be a standard weekday for her and Adora, but all together it was just annoying. Catra breathed out and in. They’d survived a dragon attack. They’d survived a spaceship crash on a strange planet, and a fight with two monsters, and an encounter with hostile locals, and now they’d apparently made friends. But Adora was always making friends. That’s just what she did. Catra tried ticking off all their successes to keep from thinking about what else was out there. Mostly Telika. The Dragon. She tried not to think of what Telika had threatened to do to Adora, what she had promised to do to Adora, or about how much power a dragon-god had to make good on her promises. She especially tried not to think of those images or those sounds - the blood, the tears, the tearing and screaming, the terror in Adora's face, Catra's helplessness. Shit.

Catra looked down at Melog, whose mane was a furious red and whose back was arched. She felt her claws digging into her own palms as she balled her fists. 'Alright, Perfuma, I'll try this mindfulness shit. It sounds better than freaking out,' Catra thought. She couldn't afford to freak out again - she'd better try something different. Catra looked at the water, rushing past her with a soothing roar. She breathed in. And then out. Those things she had seen weren't real. This was real - the cold wind and snowflakes on her skin, the warmth of this fur cloak, the snow piled around her, the roar of the river. She heard Adora's laugh in the distance, over her shoulder. Adora was alive. Adora loved her. They had each other. All that was real, too. But for how much longer? 

Catra growled and shook her head. She was done arguing with herself. They needed a plan. Something that could get them in touch with Glimmer and Bow or let them escape. But that road led straight through the dragon. Damnit. This wasn't helping either. She breathed in again. This calming shit worked so much better when there wasn't an actual crisis. Fuck it, what could she do? Just stick with Adora and keep them both alive, somehow. 

She turned and looked at Adora. Adora was laughing at something Elix had said, and smiling at an awkward but cute Suveri kid. Her eyes were fucking sparkling with mirth. Catra felt a surge of anger - they were stranded, they'd nearly died three times over, and some kind of divine dragon wanted to kill them, and Adora was having fun? But she also felt something softer and sadder. She hadn't seen Adora like that enough lately - she'd seen flashes of it when Adora had won some impossible victory, or in a dive bar defeating all comers at arm wrestling or when she and Catra were giving each other shit. Catra had often seen a more intimate face of that happiness when they were in each other's arms, but mostly she hadn't seen it enough, especially in moments like this, in public. Catra hadn't even known she had missed it. Adora was almost relaxed now, she was happy. Catra realized only then that Adora had been unhappy for a while. Or at least, she hadn't been happy. She felt another pang of sadness at this, and also the gnawing, mocking doubt that if Adora wasn't content it was because Catra wasn't good enough, wasn't fun enough, wasn't kind enough, just wasn't enough. Then Adora looked over her shoulder right at Catra and beamed.

Fuck, I love this woman, Catra thought. And seeing her like this makes damn near anything worth it. When the hell did she turn into such a sap? She also knew that she would do anything to keep this woman alive, this woman who was so much better than her, this woman she didn’t deserve. And for now, that just meant sticking with the big dummy and maybe trying to enjoy the ride before it all came crashing down.

Catra turned to Melog, whose mane was now a cooler violet. “How are you holding up, buddy? You haven’t really said anything since we landed, and it’s been...it’s been a while.”

“I am feeling the magic of this place. It is strange. It is not trapped like the magic of Etheria was, or wild like the magic of Etheria is now. It’s not depleted like the magic of my home. It’s different. It’s...regular. Channeled. What is your concept for it? Geometrical, you call it. Adora senses it as well.”

“Huh. Yeah I don’t know shit about magic but that does sound pretty interesting to all you magicky-types.”

“We are bonded. You are a magicky-type as well.”

“Yeah, right, Melog. Next you’ll be saying I’m a princess.”

“Glimmer did try to call you one. Repeatedly.”

“Hah! And we saw how that worked out for her. Damn, the snow’s coming down. It’s all over your back”

“I do not mind. Do you wish to rejoin the others? Your mind is so much calmer when you are with Adora.”

“Ugh, you don’t need to remind me. Fine.”

Adora nearly pulled Catra into her lap when they returned. She was asking Elix and some males all kinds of questions about Suveri culture, their history, old stories, visitors from beyond the stars, anything. The Illithi answered casually, and without any reverence, and they often contradicted each other. They didn’t agree on what the real history of the Suverii was. In fact, they got sidetracked for what seemed like half an hour on a theological debate about whether if, since Telika was a false god, there were any true gods at all. Apparently there were three Illithi and four opinions about this and everything else. But Catra kinda liked it, as annoying as it was when she wanted a straight answer. The Illithi thought for themselves, obviously, and they rolled with the punches. They must have put together that she and Adora were from a different planet or whatever, and they didn’t seem to give a shit. Plus they were obviously fun at parties.

The Illithi got back to the point and Catra could see what Adora was getting at - she wanted to know about the First Ones and what they’d done to the planet. Catra could see a kind of anxious guilt around the corner of Adora’s eyes, and she wished she could just smack it off of Adora’s face. Instead she just sighed. Not that it mattered. The Illithi didn’t know for sure what had really happened with those invaders from beyond the stars 30 generations ago or whatever, and they didn’t quite care. They just knew that they hated Telika and her stupid rules. Honestly they seemed to have their priorities straight.

After a while of talking about ancient history and Elix and the others asking increasingly probing questions about their personal lives, a couple of excited males joined them, bearing furry bundles in their arms. They presented Adora and Catra’s new, barbarous clothes to each of them. Adora got a fur cloak, gloves, a top that didn’t seem to cover that much and big fur lined boots. No sleeves though - as soon as Adora put everything on, everyone was invited to the gun show. Catra got a similar cloak, fur-lined leggings, a short skirt and a top that did the job, plus arm-length fingerless gloves that almost reminded her of sleeves. Adora turned to Catra and subtly flexed a muscle.

“How do I look?”

“Like an idiot.”

“So same as always, huh? Anything else?”

“You actually do look kinda badass. How about me?”

“Beautiful and deadly, my dear. You look beautiful and deadly", Adora said. Catra could feel her eyes as they ran over Catra's body, resting here and there on a few favorite places.

“Damn Adora, we’re in public, keep it in your pants,” Catra said, blushing and looking sideways. Adora guffawed. 

“Really, it reminds me of one of my favorite outfits of yours,” Adora said with a wink. She probably meant the one with what she called the ‘thigh highs’ and the black leather sleeve and the low cut top. Leave it to Adora to see black leather and lingerie and not a badass battle uniform for a terrifying warlord, or maybe to see both at once. Catra sighed inwardly. That outfit had been wasted back then.

“Yeah I could get used to this.” Catra said, turning to Elix and the...tailors? Should she call them tailors? Skin-sewers? Furriers? Whatever. She gave them a smile and a dorky, awkward little bow. Sparkles would be so much better at this. Elix and the tailors smiled, and Adora and Catra uncurled themselves just a bit out from under their cloaks. Those were the best part, really - they were made of shaggy Grayagghi back fur on the outside, and soft belly fur with the guard hairs plucked out on the inside. They were impossibly warm, and Catra guessed waterproof. Adora moved to take a stray bit of thread and tie her hair back, but Catra caught her hand. 

“I know you like that stupid ponytail, but I really like it better this way. Plus it kind of completes the whole barbarian look.” Adora shook her head and smiled. She left her hair down.

“If you want I can braid some of it up to keep it out of your eyes.”

Adora cocked an eyebrow. “Do you even know how to braid hair?”

“Sure, Sparkles taught me, I’m great at it.” 

Adora gave a skeptical smile and shifted so that she was below Catra with her head in her lap.

They sat there while Catra tried again and again to get this stupid crown braid to work while concealing her growing frustration. Adora asked a lot more about the Illithi, and they answered a bit more - as long as the questions were about them and not about ‘The stories of priestesses’ the Illithi had a lot to say. They talked about magic, which Catra barely followed - though they did say that the Priestesses and Telika controlled the 'flow' of planet’s magic, and the Illithi used the magic they could draw from the living things and the elements around them. But their magic was free - it was theirs, not some way of controlling them, like the dragon’s magic. That dragon was everywhere, damn her. Catra remembered that sickeningly familiar tendril of shadow that had wrapped itself around the Grayaggh before it attacked. Catra had a better and better idea of what that was the more she thought about it. She didn’t like thinking about it.

There was another meal, and more stories. Catra finally fixed up Adora’s hair so that a crown braid kept some out of her eyes and the rest was down. It actually looked kind of great. Adora smiled to see her reflection in the ice and kissed Catra on the cheek. Catra and Adora told some stories of their adventures on other worlds. Adora brought out her map to show the Illithi, who thought it was a strange thing. “It’s like a picture of the Valley, but from high above.”

“But the valley does not look like that. It is a strange picture.”

“Don’t you have maps? How do you find your way?”

“We know the stories of this valley, we know the shape of the rocks and trees. We have walked these paths many times. And we have...you may call it a map.”

One of the other warriors unrolled a skin and angled it toward the firelight. It was a kind of diagram. A series of lines, drawn between pictograms. Adora looked at it, confused. Mapmaking was maybe her only hobby, and she had never seen one like that.

Catra pointed to a pictogram. “What’s that?”

“That is us. The Illithi.”

“And that one?” Catra asked.

“The Sisyxri, our sisters down the coast.”

“So this line is...like a trading route or something?” Adora asked.

“It is that, and the bonds of friendship between our bands. The mates we have taken from among them, the mates they have taken from among us. The children of theirs we have raised, and those of ours for which they’ve done the same.”

Catra nodded. It wasn’t a map of places, not really. It was a map of people. Of how they knew each other, what they meant to each other.

Adora pointed at another glyph on the map. “What’s that strange symbol there?”

“That is the temple of the People of the Code. It lies at the head of this valley. The Priestesses say it is the gateway to the Dead City. And to Telika.”

“Oh.” Catra’s ears fell. 

Adora continued. “And what’s this line here? It doesn’t look like the others.”

“It is the sacrifices who are brought up to the temple. The Silver Ships from Andilar beyond the sea bring them to their fort on the coast, and then they walk overland on the Road of Queens.”

Catra felt a strange chill at the word ‘sacrifices.’ Probably some livestock or grain or something. Still weird.

Adora perked up. “You talked about that road before. So it leads to the Temple and the Dead City?”

Catra glared at Adora and nearly rolled her eyes. Of course Adora heard about a place called ‘The Dead City’ and thought ‘I want to go there.’ She’d loved that death planet which was just ruins for hundreds of miles. Catra couldn’t even remember that damned place’s name.

“Yes, it leads there. Or so the priestesses claim. We know it leads to their temple. But we do not know where it leads beyond there.”

“If it leads to anywhere, it must go beneath the mountains. The crags and glaciers cannot be crossed, unless you have wings,” said another warrior.

Adora looked at her own map. She took out a pen from the case, drew in a rough line for the Road of Queens, and marked the head of the valley with an X. Catra swallowed. Well, they had to get there somehow, unless they were going to wait for Sparkles to crash Darla into the planet. There had to be an out. Some other way. But Catra couldn’t see it. Adora rolled up her map and turned back to Catra. She gave a reassuring smile. Catra just shook her head but took Adora’s hand.

The sun set. The Illithi turned to telling stories of great hunts from the past, great deeds in war, mighty fests of magic, beloved nurses and beautiful males. They told what sounded like fairy-stories for the children, the kind that Sparkles got all wistful talking about and that Catra and Adora hadn’t heard until they were grown. And at last, two by two, and three by three, the Illithi started going to bed. Soon Adora and Catra were left alone with their new Illithi style blanket and bed roll and their cloaks thrown over them. Adora turned to Catra.

“Hey Catra.”

“Hey Adora.”

“Some day, huh?”

“Is that your only line?”

“Shut up. Don’t make me come over there,” Adora said with a smile and a wink, pulling Catra toward her. “I think today was better than yesterday.”

“Well I mean we didn’t get attacked by any dragons who are apparently also planet-ruling gods. So yeah, that part was nice.”

“I like the Illithi.”

“You would! It’s an entire tribe of buff chicks who throw rocks when they’re trying to flirt.”

“You’re not jealous, are you?”

“Maybe I would be if you weren’t all over me today. Seriously Adora, have you no decency?” Catra asked in mock outrage.

“Not when it comes to you,” Adora said with a leer, and Catra cackled. But Adora sighed, and her smile faded. “I know that story must have been a lot.”

“It was nice, actually. Kinda sappy, but not too lame.” Catra’s own expression shifted to a more serious look. “Is that how you really remember it? I remember a lot more…”

“Heartbreak?”

“Yeah.”

“I do too. But there were good things too, and we’re together now, and I never get to talk about, I dunno, us. Not to other people. Not when I’m being She Ra and uh...the ambassador of magic? Is that what Glimmer calls me? I can never remember.”

“It’s been seven months and you really don’t remember your title?”

“Never really paid that close attention to it, honestly.”

Catra laughed. “And people call me a slacker.”

Adora laughed with her, and then looked serious.

Adora reached out and touched Catra’s cheek. “Without talking about you, it’s not the same story, though. This one feels, I don’t know. It’s more true. More...me, maybe? You know how bad I am at feelings, it’s hard to talk about.”

No Adora, Catra thought, you’re bad at -your- feelings. You can practically read my mind but you were apparently in love with me for a decade and didn’t know it. But Catra didn’t say that. Instead she put on her most encouraging voice and said “please try. To talk about your feelings, or whatever. I do have to live with them.”

“I know. It’s just, when we were talking to the Cephalopodians, or the other people we’ve met, and Glimmer and I tell the Story of She Ra, I feel like we’re talking about someone else. Because you’re not in it. Not really. But you’re the whole reason I am She Ra. You, and Glimmer, and Bow, and everyone I love. I think about you guys every time I shout that stuff about Grayskull. And everyone acts like I did what I did to, I don’t know, give hope to the universe. I didn’t, though. I wanted to save it, sure, but it wasn’t the universe I was thinking about at the Heart of Etheria. It was you. It was us.”

Catra couldn’t be sure but she thought that there was a tear in the corner of Adora’s eyes.

“And they talk about how I’m the slayer of Horde Prime. What was it, the tyrant-killer?”

They call you some other crap that is way scarier, Catra thought. But she let Adora continue.

“Do you know when I decided I was going to kill Horde Prime?”

‘Decided’ - that was a word. Sometimes Catra almost forgot that she slept next to a woman who just made ‘decisions’ like ‘I’m going to kill the god tyrant of the known universe,’ or slept with a knife under her pillow. Still. But Catra played along. “I dunno, when he decided to erase all of existence?”

“It was when you were having nightmares, back in the sick bay on Darla. We were barely talking back then, you remember.”

“If I didn’t the 2 hour story we told would’ve probably jogged my memory, Adora.”

“Anyway, when I saw how much pain you were in, when I saw how much he had hurt you, I just knew I was going to kill him. With these hands. I promised that I would do it, and I promised I would enjoy it. Guess I’m a woman of my word.”

Catra smiled and shook her head, but mostly to keep from staring, or crying. “So you killed the emperor of the cosmos for me.”

“And I’d fucking do it again, Catra. Still, when it actually happened it was mostly just one of those things I had to do. Like restoring magic to Etheria or like turning his flagship into a tree.”

“I think you mean a space-broccoli.”

Adora snorted, then shook her head and breathed in, serious again. “When I first decided to kill him I figured I’d wring his neck or snap it, or run him through. Not just ...magic him into nothingness.”

“Wringing his neck would have been sweet.”

“Yeah.” Adora smiled and held Catra closer. “Thanks for playing along. I know the past is...it’s hard for you. Is that why you didn’t like bringing the whip? I had thought that was a good memory for you but…”

Catra swallowed. She guessed it was time to talk about all this feelings crap herself. Oh well. “It would be a good memory but... there aren’t any good memories for me from back then. Or I mean...nothing that’s just good, without something bad all...mixed together. You were right, the Crimson Wastes...that was good for me. No Hordak, no Shadow Weaver, just me, my wits, my whip and Scorpia. Scorpia told me it was the happiest she'd ever seen me. It was probably the happiest I ever was between you finding the sword and everything and you...you know, rescuing me. But then I threw it all away. I was almost happy, and I chose to be miserable. Not like I felt like I had a choice. 

"Adora, after I got that whip, I took you, and the sword, and I went back to the Horde. Shadow Weaver destroyed that whip with her lightning when she and Glimmer nearly killed me."

Adora grimaced and locked her jaw into a scowl. She'd nearly decked Sparkles when she'd heard the full story. But Adora reached out and touched Catra behind her ears. Catra closed her eyes and continued. 

"Then I pulled that lever. You and Glimmer lost Angella. I betrayed Entrapta, and Scorpia, and even Hordak. Basically every friend I still had, and it’s something I don’t like even thinking about and when I do...I can’t understand myself anymore. I did that, I fucked everything up and it's all on me. But I don’t understand...I dunno. I don’t understand the woman who did that. I remember it, I know why but, it feels so far away and it doesn’t even make sense.” Catra felt herself about to come apart. This twisting, desperate urge to tear at herself, to twist around, run scream, and freeze at the same time. But she was used to it. She knew what to do. She just let herself feel like shit. Eventually she wouldn’t. The wave of regret would pass. Still, only Adora’s touch kept her from rushing off into the night.

“Catra…” Adora was struggling for words. Instead she just held Catra in her arms and stroked behind her ears. “You’ve just... grown so much. We’ve grown so much, and we’re better people than we were. And I’m just glad to have you. I’m glad to have you here. Just the two of us against a whole planet.”

“Just the way we always talked about, huh?”

“Two girls, taking on the world. And winning. We can do this, Catra.”

“Damn you’re an optimist.”

Adora just winked and they lay in silence for a little while.

"Catra, you know you don’t have to keep the whip. If you don't want to.”

“Actually I’m starting to like it again. It always was badass. Maybe I can make some better memories with it now.”

As long as I can keep you alive, my love, Catra thought.

They fell asleep in each other's arms, with Catra purring loudly.

Catra was awoken by Melog licking her face and Adora gently shaking her by the shoulder. She gave a small growl to them both and batted them away from her face. Of course they were ganging up on her to wake her up early. She momentarily thought she’d stay in bed just out of spite, but the sun was out, and she was never going back to sleep now. She hated the morning. She thought about what the day would bring, and she hated it more. She hadn’t dreamed of a plan to avoid the dragon and still escape the planet. Catra raised herself from the bedroll with a groan.

Adora had already left her side and was talking to the Illithi, who were already nearly packed up and ready to move out. Catra realized she needed to roll up her own bedroll, but she swiveled one ear to listen to Adora and Elix at the same time.

“So how far is this temple if we take the Road of Queens?”

“It is a little less than three whole day’s journey, if you walk quickly, as unburdened warriors do, and if you stop little and walk from dawn until dusk. I warn you, the road is quick, but it is not without danger. The warriors, the guards of the People of the Code march along that road. Only the strongest of our warriors may fight them, and only when we walk in great numbers.”

“Elix, you’ve seen us fight. Do you really think it isn’t something we can handle?” Catra saw Adora beam her most self-assured smile up at Elix, who shrugged to half-concede the point. Adora started..“Oh! I need to show you something. I think I’ve figured this out. For the Honor of Grayskull!”

Adora held out her hand, and light spread from her eyes across her body as her arms and legs lengthened and swelled. A ray of light solidified into steel in her hand, and Catra’s crown arched around her face, her boots grew wings, and the fur of her top combed itself into a heart.. She was She Ra, but her clothes had barely changed - everything was fur and hide, her arms and legs were still bare, and that cloak was still streaming behind her. Her hair was long, but it was down except for the braid Catra had plaited last night, and it blew in the wind like a warrior’s helmet crest.

“Pretty neat, huh?”

Even Catra stared a bit, and the unflappable Illithi were genuinely impressed. They went up to Adora and slapped her on the back and complimented her cloak, and the ‘plumes’ of her hair. Catra huffed at how the woman she loved was also the galaxy’s biggest idiot. She gave the mildest hiss to herself when a warrior called She-Ra ‘beautiful’, then she just sighed. Women loved She-Ra and, the heavens help her, She-Ra loved women. 

But there were more important things to worry about than her girlfriends only partly reformed flirtatious ways. Catra tried to think through their next steps as she finished lashing their bedroll angrily and tying it around herself, as well as slinging a hide bag full of Grayagghi meat over her shoulder. There had to be some way out of this, some angle. Sneak past the temple under cloak, rescue the Cephalopodians and fly off to safety? Telika could catch them and they’d be even more fucked. Sneak into the Cephalopodian ship and try to get off a transmission telling Glimmer to stay away? If a recording of a fucking dragon attack wouldn’t convince Sparkles not to leap into danger, and it probably wouldn’t, Adora begging her over the radio wouldn’t work. Though at least it would let Sparkles know they were alive. Still not enough. What was left? Distracting a dragon? Damnit, Catra hadn’t even had breakfast and she was trying to plot for two people. Because there is no way Adora’s plan was anything more or less than ‘walk up to the dragon to make friends with it and/or fight it.’ 

Catra looked over at her nearly 8 foot tall barbarian warrior queen of a girlfriend. Everything about her from her fur cloak to her sword to her boots to her smile said ‘I am a woman that is going to punch a dragon in the face.’ Still, it was hard to be pissed at her when she looked that damn good. Catra found her eyes wandering over Adora’s thigh muscles and biceps again. At last Catra’s stomach growled and she could distract herself with the breakfast the males had laid out - fatty pieces of Grayagghi meat fried on a hot rock next to the fire. There were only two pieces left. Catra didn’t even need to ask if Adora had had breakfast. She smiled to herself and took both pieces.

“Thanks for leaving me some, jerk!” She called over to Adora.

Adora looked over her shoulder. “You should thank me for leaving anything. After all, you snooze, you lose!”

“Not even you need to eat seven helpings of alien bacon, Adora.”

Adora scoffed. “Like I said, you’re lucky I left you any.”

Catra turned to a young Illithi. “You see what I have to put up with?” but she grinned through all of it.

Catra looked back over at Adora. She’d mentally called her a ‘barbarian queen’ and that was true. She laughed louder, she stood taller, her smile was quicker and broader. Adora was sometimes hesitant, self-doubting, second-guessing, or bored and listless. Supposedly it was worse when Catra wasn’t around. But here, on this planet, in these clothes, that Adora was almost entirely gone. What remained was a savage, swaggering goddess, ferocious and dangerous. Catra had to remind herself just how ridiculous her girlfriend was just to keep from staring or drooling.

Adora slung her own sack around her shoulders and draped her cloak over it. Then they said their goodbyes. They thanked Elix, and the tailors, and everyone who had cooked, and the warriors who came up and slapped them on the shoulder and headbutted Adora goodbye. Elix and the others parted with half-shouted advice about enduring the cold, and warnings not to trust the words of the civilized folk and their priestesses - and to trust Telika least of all. Waving, Adora and Catra walked through the snow, over the rest of the gravel bar and then among the towering trees of the forest. At least they reached the Road. It was purple-pink, crystalline and etched with those weird glyphs the First Ones loved so much. Snow was piled around it, but it was dry and bare. Squeezing Catra’s hand to reassure her, Adora let them out on the Road of Queens, walking toward the Temple, the Dead City and the Dragon.


	8. Adora, the Etherian

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adora and Catra go on a long walk down the Road of Queens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soundtrack: Manilla Road - Open the Gates

Adora of Etheria, She-Ra, tyrant-slayer, walked down the Road of Queens, struggling to keep a smile off her face. Catra walked beside her, long limbed, lithe and lovely, and Adora had to force her gaze away from the woman by her side and onto the landscape around her.

It was beautiful. The sun was coming out from behind the clouds, and all around them the forest was dappled in deep shadows and brilliant light. It was not so different from the Whispering Woods, but colder, and with even bigger trees, evergreen, not broad-leaved, but still it reeked of magic. In between the widely spaced, huge evergreens there was a canopy of leather-leafed shrubs as tall as trees themselves, and above them the arching trunks of other trees, smaller than the evergreens but still tall, and bare of leaves. Adora had spent enough time with Perfuma to wonder what the forest would look like in summer. Would those huge shrubs erupt in flowers? Would there be ferns, herbs, small bushes? All that assumed there was a summer here at all.

Here and there the forest would clear enough that they could see the nearly sheer walls of the valley and even taller ice-capped mountains beyond them, now visible in the clear sky. Those mountains were taller than any in Etheria - miles tall, though it was hard to tell without surveying equipment. Adora resisted the urge to stop and note down some peaks and heights on her map, but she made a few mental notes for later, not just the mountains around them but also the course of the road they walked on. Mostly though, Adora took in the whole landscape. This whole valley had been carved by ice long ago. Adora could see the marks of the ancient glaciers everywhere, and they were majestic - hanging valleys, frozen waterfalls, sheer smooth granite cliffs, boulders scattered around them like a young giant's toys. Adora started to point them out to Catra.

"You see that hanging valley? That must have been where a smaller glacier flowed into the big glacier. Oh you can still see ice in the back of it! And look at that rock! That's a glacial erratic. And look at that cliff! See the grooves from…"

At this point Catra burst out laughing. "How the hell are you both the galaxy's biggest barbarian badass and the third biggest nerd in the known universe, at the same time?" She asked, laughing and smiling up at Adora.

"I...er... you're the nerd!"

"Nice comeback, She-Ra."

"Wait who are the two biggest nerds?"

"Arrow Boy and Entrapta, obviously."

"What about Hordak? He literally never went outside. He even met his girlfriend doing a science project. There's no way I am nerdier than Hordak."

"You know, you have a point. You’re only the fourth biggest nerd in the known universe." 

“Thanks.”

“Seriously though, you look like you should be talking about…”

‘Crushing my enemies?” Adora said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah and driving them before you and hearing the lamentations of their men, or some shit.” Catra laughed. "Seriously Adora, if you ever want to get into the warlord racket, we could make something happen."

"Oh, so I should just become some space faring barbarian queen?"

"You already look like some kind of space lord motherfucker. Adora, vanquisher of kings. Or some shit like that"

"They already say stuff like that about me, Catra."

"And now you look the part."

“That is the look I’m going for.” Adora chuckled to herself. “I could get used to these clothes.”

Adora was serious - she felt large and powerful, even shrunk down to her normal size. She felt better than she had in a while. She’d loved the bluntness of Elix and the other Illithi, their delight in their strength, their way of boasting around the campfire. She loved the way they looked at her, as a great warrior, strong, fast, cunning. She could almost see herself that way. No one here knew she was She-Ra. No one even knew what that meant. Here she was just Adora the Etherian. She was still She-Ra, but she was herself. She didn’t symbolize anything to anyone. The only person who knew anything about She-Ra was Catra, and Catra would never see Adora as a symbol, only as the woman she loved. It was weird, but Adora had been feeling better ever since they’d crashed. Was it not having anyone’s hopes on her, anyone’s eyes on her? This She-Ra stuff meant too much to too many people, sometimes. Now she was free of all that. Adora felt freer, lighter, unburdened. It felt amazing.

And now she knew she was only three or four days away from the Cephalopodians and the dragon, and she knew what she had to do, and she even knew she had enough time to confront the dragon before Glimmer dropped out of warp and flew Darla right at Telika. If Adora could face down Telika and convince her or defeat her, then everything would be alright. The Cephalopodians, Bow and Glimmer, Adora and Catra - everyone would be safe. No one would have to die. It was all up to her wits, her strength, and her heart. Wearing these clothes, sword in hand, impressing those warrior women and most of all with Catra beside her, Adora even felt like she could do it. 

Catra interrupted her thoughts. “You just like showing off your biceps.”

“Complaining?”

“No, I’m mocking, Adora, that’s totally different.” Catra smiled slyly out of the side of her face, and Adora just beamed.

Catra shook her head. “Dork.”

They felt easily into teasing each other more. Catra seemed to drift into her own thoughts, from time to time, and her ears and tail drooped sadly, so Adora pulled her out. She opened herself to mockery with awful pick-up lines or particularly bizarre trains of thought that Catra couldn’t help making fun of. One time Adora just threw a snowball. And then they’d fall into flirting, and soon Catra and Adora would be hanging off each other, wrestling and tugging at each other, laughing together, taking the piss out of each other until they were both smiling.

Even with all that, Adora and Catra made good time on the road. With decent boots and light burdens they could step quickly and keep going. When dusk finally fell and they needed to stop to camp they’d travelled nearly twenty seven miles by Adora’s reckoning, though the road curved a great deal. She didn’t have surveying equipment with her, but as Swiftwind flew they’d probably gone closer to fifteen miles. For dinner they ate cold Grayagghi meat, and they entertained each other telling their favorite Kyle Stories from back when they were kids. Like that time he’d tried to warm up and soften his ration bar by stuffing it down his pants on a 10 kilometre march. Or the infamous Rogue Boot Incident, a Kyle mystery so perplexingly pointless that only Rogelio had ever gotten to the bottom of it, and then no one else could quite get the gist of what had really happened through all the convoluted -lizard noises-. By the end even Melog was laughing. Catra and Adora once again fell asleep in each other’s arms with Melog watching over them - with their cloaks, fur blankets and bedrolls and each other for warmth, they didn’t even need a fire.

When they woke the next day, they were warm but covered in snow, and Melog was a soft glow beneath a drift. They ate more Grayagghi meat, threw on their packs and stumbled through the near white-out back onto the road. But when they found the road it was as easy going as ever. It was a strange way to travel - a clear path before them, a blizzard all around them, it was like they were travelling in a bubble, or not travelling at all. Adora gave up trying to figure out how far they’d gone, and she and Catra just focused on keeping a steady pace. Without the mountains and forest to distract her, focusing on the road ahead, Adora couldn’t help seeing the First One’s runes written all over their path. It was mostly just numbers for each section of road, and something that might be magic, or technology, or both, labelled ‘snow dispersion field’. 

But even seeing their writing reminded Adora of how she was walking in the literal footsteps of her ancestors, people who had come to this world, and done nothing good, as far as she could tell. She thought about the other planets where she had seen the marks of the First Ones. Magic sapped from the land, people colonized, and yet nothing was left of her people after a thousand years but ruins and hollowed out worlds. Sometimes she wondered about Eternia. What it was like, whether it even still existed, whether it could feel like home. But most of the time, Adora hoped she never found it. She thought about the First Ones building this road and she promised that she would never be like them.

"You alright, Adora?" Catra asked.

"I'm fine, just thinking." Adora stopped. "Wipe that smirk off your face."

Catra looked like she was struggling between snarking and concern. “As much as I love laughing at the idea of you thinking, something’s bothering you, Adora. “

“Something’s bothering you too, Catra.”

“What’s bothering me? Oh just the dragon-diety who wants to kill us and who has nearly absolute power over this entire fucking planet. Other than that, not much. So what’s bothering you?”

“Just thinking about the First Ones.”

Catra nearly let out a groan worthy of Glimmer, but she swallowed it and asked instead “what about them?”

“Don’t you mean ‘us’? I’m one of them. And we did...all of this. Just like we did to Krytis and Etheria.”

“Oh come on Adora. You’ve never met another First One. You’re not some...heir of their empire, or whatever the fuck it is you’re thinking.”

“But that is my heritage. That’s the legacy I’m inheriting…”

“Adora you’re an orphan. I remember, I was raised by the same shitty people as you were, and I didn’t see any First Ones back in the Fright Zone. You’re an Etherian. Don’t you feel like an Etherian?”

“I do. But the First Ones...they’re the reason I’m She-Ra.”

“Yeah how’s that worked out for you?”

“Kinda great, sometimes,” Adora said, flashing a smile and making a muscle and laughing weakly.

“But you made it great, Adora. That wasn’t them. That cosmic asshole was right about one thing. The First Ones were a race of tyrants, and they made you their weapon. They were going to use you to destroy most of the galaxy, and kill you doing it. Light Hope…” Catra literally growled in rage. “Light Hope used you. She manipulated you. She nearly killed you. You don’t owe the First Ones shit. They didn’t give you shit. You don’t have an inheritance. You’re another one of their victims.”

Adora looked over to Catra. Her claws were out, her fur was on edge, and Melog’s mane was glowing red. Catra looked over to her and took a breath. Melog’s manel cooled, and her fur relaxed.

“Sorry, Adora. They way Light Hope treated you and what the First Ones did to you, making you She Ra and everything...it just pisses me off. Fuck, I’m angrier about it now than when you first told me. The better shit gets for us the more the crap people did to you pisses me off. Shadow Weaver and Light Hope and even fucking Sparkles sometimes. You deserved better than all that destiny and duty shit, Adora. What Light Hope did to you, she was just twisting the knife Shadow Weaver stuck in you when we were kids. And I think about that and I want to scream and rip something to shreds. And then you piss me off even more by acting guilty, like you were the one conquering the galaxy and not the unlucky fuck who got stuck holding the sword when the party was over.” 

Catra turned away, but not before Adora could see her tears. “Fuck, Adora I love you. You know how much it hurts to see you feel guilty for shit you haven’t even done?”

“Catra...what you say is true. But...it’s also really complicated.”

Catra wiped her eyes. Adora thought she could hear a sniff. “It’s not complicated, Adora. You didn’t conquer the fucking galaxy. You didn’t gain anything from the First Ones conquering the galaxy. Besides, didn’t Razz say Etheria made you She-Ra?”

Adora nodded. “She did.”

“So the First Ones didn’t even give you this power. Etheria did. The First Ones just tried to use you. So why are you acting like you’re inheriting their shitty legacy?”

Adora sighed. “Catra, you’re not wrong.”

“There’s a word for that. I think it rhymes with ‘light’. Oh yeah, ‘Catra, you’re right. That’s what I think you should say right now.” Catra said, chuckling and blinking through tears.

Adora laughed in spite of herself. “Catra, you’re right. But I’m still a magically powered alien landing on this planet and I don’t want to fuck it up like my ancestors did. I’m not here to conquer anyone, or hurt anyone. I just want to get the Cephalopodians and leave.”

Catra nodded. “Yeah, I get that. But what if Telika and her priestesses don’t let you? What are you willing to do?”

Adora looked away. “I don’t know.”

“See that’s what I was talking about with holding back. You want to tell me ‘bar fight rules’ when we’re fighting Telika’s fucking cult? I have a bad feeling about this. I’ve had a bad feeling about this since before we got to this star system. And I’m terrified you’re going to try to do the right thing instead of saving yourself. So save yourself. Please. Save yourself for me, if no one else, Adora.”

Adora looked at Catra. She was crying softly, and hugging herself, and wringing her hands. Melog’s mane was a dismal and mottled violet, and it was drooping nearly as much as Catra’s ears and tail.

Adora’s heart reached out to Catra. But she was also frustrated, and tired of this argument, and even more tired of being second-guessed. “What do you want me to say, Catra, that I’m going to kill them?” Killing was not something they talked about often. They’d talked about it once or twice, because they talked about everything. They’d both killed people. Adora knew that not every tank crew had bailed out before she blew up their ride, that sometimes those space pirates didn’t survive their ships getting cut open, and Adora couldn’t even count how many clones she’d cut through on Prime’s ship. When she’d killed someone, it had never been personal. Death by She-Ra didn’t have anyone’s name on it, it was just sent ‘to whom it may concern.’ Catra...Catra had gotten those claws bloody in ways neither of them liked thinking about. For her it had been personal, and she still woke up screaming sometimes. Killing again...Adora didn’t want to be someone who showed up on someone else’s planet and started cutting people down, just like she’d told Catra before. 

“Adora, all I want to hear is what you made me promise. You’re going to do what you need to do...in order to survive. In order to make it out of here.”

Adora looked over at Catra. “I promise.” It was not a lie. Adora wasn’t going to sacrifice herself. She was going to live, and fly off into the sunset with Catra, and live happily ever after until she died when she was like, 90. But she was also going to find a way to save the Cephalopodians, and not kill the Suverii, and maybe even change Telika’s mind. Because she was She-Ra, she was Adora, and that’s what she did.

“Whatever it takes?”

“Whatever it takes.” Moments like this Adora realized that breaking Catra’s heart was one thing she could never forgive herself for.

Catra smiled back through her tears. “Thanks Adora.”

They walked on in silence, side by side, for maybe an hour. Then it became too much and Catra started ribbing Adora.

“So what’s your plan to defeat Telika? You’re the tactical genius, aren’t you?”

“I figure I’ll just punch her in the face. Still working on the details, you know me. I like to wing it.” Catra somehow managed to laugh and recoil in horror at the same time. Adora wasn’t going to say anything about her actual plan, which involved at least trying to talk to this dragon that Catra was terrified of.

Things went on like that for the rest of the day. The snow slackened from a blizzard to a normal snowstorm, and by the time twilight was settling in they could almost see the shadows of the valley walls around them. They settled into a camp a short walk from the road, once again not bothering with or risking a fire. Catra turned to Adora as they lay together, waiting for their hearts to slow enough for sleep to take them.

“Hey Adora.”

“Hey Catra.”

And then Catra looked at Adora with that alluring grin, mismatched eyes shining in the light of the stars as they came up from behind the clouds, and if Adora wasn’t happy before, she was happy then. This was all she needed.

They woke with the dawn again, when the sun was still behind the mountains and the high ceiling of clouds. 

“At least it’s not snowing.” Remarked Catra as she rolled out of her bed roll with a grown and tossed Adora a fatty hunk of Grayagghi meat. At this time of morning, Adora could only grunt appreciatively and tear into her food.

Neither of them wasted any time getting ready. They were both eager to get to the end of this journey, and the more daylight they had at the end of it the better. So soon they were off.

The valley narrowed as they continued on the road. The walls and the mountains behind them began to blend together, until soon there were only two nearly sheer rock and ice covered slopes towering above them, disappearing into the clouds. They could see those mountains all the time now, because the once-vast trees had thinned until they were stunted and scattered. Lush rainforest had been replaced with a frozen taiga. Even Catra seemed impressed, though mostly she seemed cold - now the wind whipping down the valley cut through even their cloaks, and soon Adora wrapped Catra in her cloak and arms and they walked together like that, Adora shielding Catra from the cold. But soon enough they turned a corner, and there they saw the head of the valley - a slope that the Road of Queens snaked up, and above it a nearly sheer wall that ended in the cliff-life face of a glacier. Halfway up, unmistakable, they saw the dirty gray-brown straight, hard lines of buildings. For the first time since they’d crashed, they saw their surroundings shaped by something other than ice, wind, and water. It was a strange collection of buildings - low houses, crowded together, made of something like stucco, in terraced layers spreading down the slope, surrounded by a kind of wall on the downhill side, and protected by near sheer cliffs on the other sides. Above them were two great buildings, made of the same weathered material, but much larger, and capped with snow-covered domes. Catra and Adora gave each other a single look and walked on, toward the Temple of Telika.

As they grew closer and the temple and valley’s head loomed higher and higher over them, Catra turned to Adora.

“So we’re doing this.”

“We’re doing this.” Adora said, setting her face and giving a grim smile out of one corner of her mouth.

Catra shook her head. “Why are you so...I dunno. Confident? Are you really that much of a cocky jerk that you think you can just walk up and punch a dragon in the face?”

“Catra, you and I both know that my cockiness knows no bounds.”

“I mean you did scream ‘I am a fucking sex goddess’ at the top of your lungs, on our balcony, after we had been dating for like a month.”

“You called me that first.”

“That was pillow talk, okay. And, hey maybe I had a really good time and I was kinda blissed out. But that’s not the point. Is this, all this...really just about you feeling invincible?”

“In these clothes, I certainly feel like I could punch a dragon or two.” Adora gave her crookedest, most self-assured grin. Catra rolled her eyes. “But no, it’s not just that.”

“What is it?”

“You’re going to say it’s sappy.”

“I mean, probably, but when has that stopped you?”

Adora laughed. “Fine, Catra. Do you remember when we promised each other that we’d always look out for each other?”

“Adora, you keep asking me if I remember shit that I could never forget. Do you think I’m brain damaged?”

“So you remember.”

“Yeah, I recall talking about it a couple times.”

“Well, that wasn’t the only thing we said.We also said that as long as we were together, nothing they did could really hurt us.”

“Yeah, I remember that. So what?”

“So what? We were right. Think about everything we’ve done since we’ve been back together. We beat Horde Prime. We’ve kicked asses from one end of the galaxy to the other. We are undefeated in barroom brawls and actual space battles throughout the universe. Catra, ever since you came back into my life...we’ve been unbeatable. I’m not invincible, Catra. I don’t think I am. But when we’re together, we can do anything. We can beat anybody.”

“You’re right. That’s sappy as shit.” Catra said, but Adora could see her smile and feel her tail wrap around Adora’s waist.

"So since we are so unstoppable together, do you have a plan for waltzing into that town?"

"I do, actually."

Catra looked genuinely surprised."Wait, seriously, you, the princess of winging it, have a plan?"

"Yup."

"Care to share with the rest of us?"

"Oh I guess I should. You are kinda important to my plan."

"Well then out with it, don't just look at me with that shit-eating grin."

Adora chuckled. "I am going to transform into She Ra, walk up to the gate, and demand entrance." 

"That's not a plan."

Adora ignored her. “I’m going to demand entrance, and you and Melog are going to stay cloaked and watch my back. If they turn me away you are going to find a back way in and let me in anyway. Meanwhile I’ll try to talk to them, whatever happens, and figure out what I can."

"And if they just attack you on sight?"

"I can take them, but you can help out. Don't reveal yourself, though. If they bar the gate you'll need to slip in and let me in. Or I could just blast through it." Adora shrugged. "But I like having you around as a surprise. Plus you can watch my back and scout things out while I try to talk to them. Maybe you can find out how to get to the Dead City so we can rescue the Cephalopodians."

"That's…" Catra looked aside, and then at Melog. Melog's mane was half-ruffled with worry, and Catra's tale was twitching. "That's actually a pretty good plan."

"What did you just say?"

"Ugh. If you want me to be nice to you can you not make such a big deal out of every little compliment?"

“Well maybe if you were freer with them I wouldn’t be so…"

“Annoying? Such a smug dipshit?” Catra retorted with a broad smile. Her tail hadn’t left Adora waist, and Adora knew it. 

“Eh, you keep me on my toes.”

“You know it.” Catra swooped in and gave Adora a peck on the cheek.

Adora stopped and turned to Catra. “This is about the last tree before we get to the temple. I should transform. You should probably cloak.” 

Catra nodded, and she and Melog disappeared. 

“For the Honor of Grayskull!” Adora shouted. She felt the sword solidify in her hand, light, quick and deadly. She felt her hair billowing behind her, felt the strength swelling in her arms and legs, felt the warmth behind her eyes. She felt the reminders of the people she loved envelop her - Bow’s heart, Glimmer’s wings, Catra’s crown. She felt the power of Etheria itself flow through her. She looked behind her, to where she knew Catra was standing, invisible but so present, there to support her. She turned and fixed her icy eyes on the temple complex and its gates. She was She-Ra, she was Adora. Whatever that temple held, she could face it. Adora walked up the Road of Queens toward the Temple complex.

It was a long and hard road, switch-backs and switch-backs twisting one after the other, snaking up the mountainside. Adora kept glancing up over her shoulder at the temple gate. There was no way they hadn’t seen her. She didn’t see the gate open, or even see any faces on the parapets of the gatehouse. Sitll she walked on. The wind blew cold down the from the glaciers all around her, and snow whipped into her eyes and stung her cheeks. She didn’t look over her shoulder to where Catra followed in her footsteps. That would be suspicious, and she couldn’t see Catra anyway. “You may want to hang back a bit, in case they send a seeing spell at me. That way they won’t see you.”

“Damn, look at the big brain on Adora here! Where were all these smarts back when you were trying to beat me?”

Adora snorted. “Guess you bring out the best in me, Catra.”

She didn’t know how long she climbed the mountain, but the sunlight filtering through the clouds was still strong when she approached the gate. Only now did it open. Silver-masked warriors in glittering bronze armour poured out, brandishing spears, axes and wickedly curved swords. 

“Greetings, I am Adora of Ether---” Adora began in a loud, clear voice. 

Adora ducked on instinct as a burning gout of black flame exploded past her head. Her eyes widened just a twitch. That purple-black, all consuming shadow could be only one thing. Adora snarled, grabbed her sword out of thin air, and whipped around to face her attacker. But even as she did more tendrils of shadow flew out, grasping at her, wrapping around her sword, her arms, her throat. Adora flicked her sword and like a solid ray of light it cut through the darkness, burning it away like snow shrinking before a bonfire. Adora could feel light pouring out of her now, throwing off the spells they were trying to bind her in. Adora roared out a battlecry. Seeing dark magic sent her into a rage. She had come to talk, to bargain, to seek understanding. But that magic had hurt too many people she loved, and now these warriors had the gall to use it on her. Peace was never an option, apparently.

She locked her eyes on one of the Suveri warriors, who was waving one set of arms in an invocation even as she held a spear and shield in the other pair. Nice trick, Adora thought, smirking. She swung her sword and light flew out like a wave, slamming into the warriors which as much force as the sea. They staggered, flew back, splayed out on the ground, and Adora charged, sword flashing. A few of them stumbled up and rushed at Adora, struggling to meet her, slashing at her with swords, hacking with axes, stabbing with spears. Adora swung her sword in a wide arc. It burned through wood, melted bronze, seared flesh. The Suveri warriors staggered back in shock. Some winced and turned away, as though blinded by the light of She-Ra. Now she was among them, and they were all around her. Tendrils of dark magic clutched at her and strangled her, weapons swung at her. Adora felt a great weight crushing her throat as one of them tried to throttle her, and felt the sting of a sword slashing her thighs. But it would take more than that to stop her. She twirled her sword around in a wide arc and spun around, cutting through the unhallowed spells and forcing her opponents back. They came at her again and again, and Adora kept swinging. One of them blasted her with fire and she swiped it away. Adora heard a fierce yell and then a shocked cry behind her, and saw a Suveri warrior with a great bronze mace pulled off her feet by a whip without a (visible) wielder. Adora winked in that direction even as she spun around to meet her next attacker.

As they tried to pile on her Adora only grew angrier and stronger, throwing off their spells and breaking their weapons. Adora’s fists and feet and elbows and knees did nearly as much work as her sword. She felt masks bend and faces crumple under her hands and her elbows. One disarmed warrior tried to grapple Adora, so she head-butted her unconscious, then kneed her companion so hard the warrior bent double. A single blow with her sword pommel sent that Suveri to the ground too. Others charged her, Adora threw them like dolls. They landed with a crunch and a groan. Still others stumbled and fell, tripped up by a whip that came out of nowhere and left just as suddenly. Adora kept swinging, kept punching, kept kicking, until she started, stared around and saw only groaning, crumpled bodies all around her. She kicked a few that were particularly still until they twitched and groaned. No one was dead, yet.

“Now will you talk? How’s it going to be? I can do this all day!” she screamed at the gates. At least the Ilithi had told her why they were trying to kill her. And they hadn’t used black magic to do it.

There was no reply. The gate was shut again. It was impressive - some dark wood like ebony, embossed and reinforced with bronze studs and straps. Adora grinned at it derisively. She took three steps toward the gate, bringing her sword down as her foot hit the ground the last time. It cut through the gate, burned through the wood, melted through the bronze, and the wave of magic that it flung out shattered all that remained and blasted it inward. Adora walked into the town through the smoking wreckage of the gate.

How would these Suveri remember this? Adora wondered, possessed by a strange thought.

“And so hither came Adora, the Etherian, flaxen-haired, blue-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the world under her booted feet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah this is the chapter where I quote both Robert E Howard and Monster Magnet. Mission accomplished (if Grant Morrison can name an X-man after a Monster Magnet song I can include one in dialog).

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies to Robert Howard, Ursula K LeGuin (several times over), Skyrim, JRR Tolkien, DND's Dark Sun, the West End Games Star Wars RPG, and Galaxy Quest, as well as every single band I mention in the soundtrack.


End file.
